Louisville, Ky. (March 3, 2007)?At Frazier Stadium last week, Bellarmine University got past St. John's University in dramatic fashion thanks to a Ray Finnegan goal with two minutes remaining. A week later on the same field, late game heroics transpired once again, but this time they belonged to Manhattan College. The Jaspers erased a four-goal deficit with less than nine minutes remaining in regulation and knocked off the host Knights, 8-7, on Matt Slane's game-winner in double overtime.
Slane, a freshman, scored 59 seconds into the second overtime to give Manhattan (1-1) its first victory of the season and hand Bellarmine (1-2) its first home loss of the campaign.
“We really needed a performance like this,” said Manhattan head coach Tim McIntee. “Not just to win a close game on the road like we did, but to do it after we lost 20-5 last week at Delaware. We needed to rebound and get the monkey off of our back and we did.”
The Jaspers gained possession to begin the second extra period thanks to a face-off win by sophomore Angelo Marrano. Manhattan called a time out 42 seconds into the overtime just moments after senior Brian Murray allowed Manhattan to keep possession by securing a ground ball. Following the break in the action, Murray found the freshman Slane who ended the game with his first career collegiate goal.
“This win really shows the character of our guys,” said McIntee. “We had a tough flight out here and fell behind in the game, but these guys stepped up to get a huge road win. Anytime you can win on the road under those circumstances it speaks volumes.”
Senior co-captain Chris Oppito set the stage for Slane's heroics when he cashed in on Manhattan's man up opportunity to tie the game at 7-7 with only 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Murray, who is the reigning MAAC Co-Offensive Player of the Week, set up the equalizer with one of his three assists on the afternoon.
Murray, who also scored two goals as part of his five-point effort, sparked Manhattan's run of five unanswered goals to end the game when he beat Bellarmine goalie J.C. Hutchens to cut Knights' lead to 7-4 with 8:18 remaining in regulation.
After an unassisted even strength goal from junior Brian Wynne sliced the deficit to two at the 5:33 mark, Manhattan received a man up opportunity with 4:45 to go on what was the first of five Bellarmine penalties in the final minutes of regulation.
Sophomore Marc Labelle punished the Knights by scoring off of a pass from freshman Matt Ryan to pull Manhattan within one with 3:59 to play. The goal was Labelle's second of the day as the sophomore accounted for the final goal of the first half to slice Bellarmine's lead in half at 4-2 heading into the break.
Bellarmine built its lead by capitalizing off three first half man up opportunities. The Knights' opened the game's scoring by converting the team's first man advantage of the day only 3:21 into the first quarter. Finnegan assisted on the goal and led the Bellarmine attack with four points on two goals and two assists.
Manhattan senior Jeremy Marrano knotted the game at 1-1 on his first of the season with 2:43 to go in the opening period, but Bellarmine responded with three straight before Labelle's tally.
Goalie John Geagan played the entire contest to pick up the victory. Geagan, who was the 2006 NCAA Statistical Champion in save percentage, turned aside 12 of Bellarmine's 19 shots on net.
“Geagan played well in the cage,” noted McIntee. “They only had him listed with 12 saves, but they were 12 real good saves."
