The Quinnipiac Men’s Lacrosse team defeated the Manhattan Jaspers in its first home game of the season, 8-6.

Despite the wintery conditions, the Bobcats came out with their first victory of the season in Kings Point, N.Y.

Freshman Chip Schmidt opened his collegiate career strong, scoring three goals and handing out two assists.

Quinnipiac came out with a quick start, scoring three goals in the first five minutes. Schmidt scored the first two goals of his hat trick, while Eric Trama tallied his first collegiate goal with 11:18 remaining in the first quarter.

Manhattan rallied back with three goals in a little over three minutes to tie up the game. Mike Honors, Eugene Tanner and Justin Otto put the Jaspers on the board respectively.

Junior Forward Andy Pelletier put another goal past the Jaspers goalie with 2:25 left in the first quarter to lead the Bobcats 4-3. Tanner scored his second goal of the game to tie up Manhattan going into the half.

Schmidt added his final goal to his hat trick with 8:37 remaining in the third quarter to put the Bobcats up once again.

Nick Silva quickly evened the score in the fourth quarter, but Quinnipiac pushed for more, and got what they wanted.

Mike Stottler scored his first collegiate goal with 13:08 remaining. John Giordano put up the game-winning goal six minutes later, while Josh Murray secured the Bobcat lead with 6:29 remaining in the game.

Otto scored his second goal of the game with less than four minutes remaining, but it was to late to keep the Jaspers in contention.

The Bobcats ended the game in victory, 8-6.

John Landers turned away 11 shots for Manhattan, while Bobcat senior T.J. Barnett stopped 12 shots in the victory for the Bobcats this afternoon.

The Bobcats return to action on March 4, 2003 at Dartmouth at 2 p.m.