RIVERDALE, N.Y. - The Manhattan men's lacrosse team rallied from an early three-goal deficit but could not find the equalizing score late in a 10-6 loss to No.15 Villanova Saturday afternoon at Villanova Stadium.
Pitted against their fourth ranked opponent this season, the Jaspers (1-8) battled the Wildcats (7-1) for 60-minutes despite giving up big advantages in shots (32-20), ground balls (27-16) and face-offs (14-6).
Offensively, Villanova's C.J. Small led all scorers with four goals while Manhattan redshirt freshman attacker Brian McGrath had a career-high three tallies.
Putting Manhattan behind early, the Wildcats used a strong start to take a 3-0 advantage behind the efforts of Nick Doherty and C.J. Small. Combing on the game's first three goals, the duo each scored once in the opening quarter to make it 2-0 Villanova, with Small adding his second goal at the 13:30 mark of the second quarter.
Regrouping on their end, the Jaspers then strung together a scoring streak of their own. McGrath got the action started with a goal off an assist from senior midfielder Brett Miranda to make it 3-1 Villanova at the 10:29 mark of the second. Following in suit, senior attacker Justin Jensen added his team-leading 12th goal of the year to cut the deficit to 3-2 with 9:04 left in the half. Less than one minute later, senior captain Mike Llewellyn tied the game at 3-all with an unassisted tally at the 8:10 clip of the second quarter.
Swinging momentum back in their favor before break, Villanova got goals by Jack Rice and Small in the final six minutes to take a 5-3 lead into the intermission.
In the third quarter, the Wildcats would build a four-goal lead behind back-to-back scores from Kevin Cunningham to take a 7-3 advantage at the 13:14 mark. Putting together yet another comeback, the Jaspers scored three consecutive goals to trim the deficit to 7-6 with 5:32 remaining in the quarter.
Miranda made it 7-5 Villanova on an unassisted tally before McGrath scored two consecutive goals, one assisted by Llewellyn, to bring them within one.
Exerting tremendous energy to pull back into the contest, it seemed as though the Jaspers peeked just a bit early as they were outscored 3-0 the rest of the way. Villanova's Max Hart and Small each tallied to end the third quarter and Rice added another in the fourth on their way to a hard-fought 10-6 victory.
In net, Billy Hurley made three saves to pick up the victory for the Wildcats. For Manhattan, senior goalkeeper Matt Solomito was strong, making 11 saves in his second start of the season.
Manhattan returns to action next Saturday when they head to Lexington, Va. to open the 2011 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference season at VMI. Opening face-off is set for 1 p.m.
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