HAMDEN, CT — It was a beautiful afternoon for lacrosse Wednesday afternoon, as Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse took on the Manhattan Jaspers and fell 12-5.

Both teams got off to a hot start, trading two goals each halfway through the first quarter of play.

After a great save by Quinnipiac graduate student goaltender Nick DiMuccio led to a long-stick fastbreak, freshman attackman Justin Robbert made a nice pass from the x to senior attackman John DeLucia, who scored off a quick stick to make it 3-2.

The Bobcats had a couple more chances to score, but some great short pole defense by the Jaspers stifled their hopes to keep it 3-2 Quinnipiac going into the second quarter.

After an uncalled slash by the Jaspers led to a bad Quinnipiac shot, Manhattan went on the offense. Graduate student attackman Dan MacKinney capitalized on a missed slide from the middle of the field to tie up the contest. This opened up a torrent of scoring by the Jaspers to make it 6-3 Manhattan with seven minutes to play in the quarter.

“I felt defensively we played okay,” Bobcats head coach Mason Poli said. “They kinda forced us into a zone there for a little bit of the time and I thought we were able to slow them down. As they kinda started to pick it apart we had to go back to man.” 

With 1:35 left in the first half, Robbert made another nice play to bring the Bobcats to within two.

What happened next was nothing short of mystifying. With less than 15 seconds left in the quarter, DiMuccio sent a howitzer from inside his own cage that landed in the Jaspers’ net off the bounce to bring the Bobcats within a single goal going into the second half.

The entire stadium erupted, until an official, without explanation, called the goal off. Possession was given to the Jaspers, who then ran the clock out.

Coming out of the break, the Bobcats came out flat. Manhattan’s defense was absolutely smothering, and the Quinnipiac offense failed to find any penetration.

“Then offensively I think we just lost our patience a little bit. They did a great job kinda hedging out our dodges. We were slowing down our tempo trying to really get that slide to commit. We just need to get downhill and get the ball moving a little bit,” Coach Poli noted.

While DiMuccio was standing on his head in net, stopping fifteen shots, the Bobcat defense simply could not keep up with the torrent of scoring.

“They got us there on some late shot clocks with us not organized,” Poli said. “Whether it’s sending slides late or not having that two (slide) and them being able to find the inside.”

Manhattan hung up an impressive 12 goals on the Bobcats, compared to Quinnipiac’s five to finish a disappointing contest, but not one without positives, as Coach Poli remarked.

“The boys fought. It was never a matter of the will being there, so we can take that and that’s gonna continue to be the message heading into this Saturday, Poli said.  “It’s a short turnaround; we go Wednesday, Saturday, two days of rest and a bus trip in the middle. It’s gonna come down to sacrificing a little bit more to get the next one.”

The Bobcats fall to 4-4 on the year, but will look to right the ship in an away contest against Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday at 12 p.m.