April 19, 2008

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Loudonville, N.Y. - Sophomore goalie Brent Herbst made 16 saves in his first game back from injury and the Saints' offensive erupted for five second period goals as the Siena men's lacrosse team captured a 7-3 victory on Senior Day over visiting Manhattan this afternoon at Siena Turf Field. Prior to the game, Siena honored graduating seniors Kevin Hogan, James Mikel, Tim Hannigan and JP Mulhall in a pregame ceremony.

The Saints (8-6, 2-4) controlled the first half of play out-shooting Manhattan (4-8, 3-3) by a 21-11 margin, but only one of their 11 first period shots found the back of the Jaspers net. The tally came courtesy of Matt Girsh just 1:12 into the action.

In the second period however, Siena's offense erupted for five goals in an 8:42 span to mount a 6-0 lead entering intermission. Ryan Duggan accounted for a pair of goals during the outburst, while Girsh added his second of the game. The other scores came off the sticks of Kenny Mazzone and Chris Zarins.

Herbst, who missed the Canisius game due to a head injury suffered in the previous contest against VMI, was stout in the opening half, making eight stops without allowing a goal and by games end lowered his MAAC leading goals against average to an even 6.00, continuing to rank him amongst the nation's leaders.

The Jaspers ended any notion of a shutout bid however as Marc LaBelle tallied one of his two goals on the afternoon at 12:57 of the third to cut Siena's lead to a still comfortable 6-1.

Duggan extended the Saints lead back to six at 7-1 early in the fourth as he completed the hat trick, scoring a rare man-down goal, Siena's league leading third of the season.

Manhattan would add a pair of late tallies to close the margin of the final score but it was not enough as Siena dominated from wire to wire.

Jaspers goalie John Geagan made seven saves in defeat, although he kept the score respectable as both he and Manhattan killed off all of Siena's season-high ten man-up opportunities.

The win snapped a skid of three one goal losses in Siena's last four games overall and kept their MAAC Tournament aspirations alive. Siena will need to win out to have any chance at qualifying for the tournament, beginning with Wednesday's regular season home finale against Marist. Face-off is set for 3 p.m. from Siena Turf Field.