Siena men stun Manhattan with late scoring run

LOUDONVILLE, NY ( NEWS10 ) — Trailing by three goals with under a minute to play against Manhattan, the Siena Men’s Lacrosse team snatched a stunning 11-10 victory from the jars of defeat on Saturday afternoon at Hickey Field in a crucial conference game that breathed life into its playoff aspirations.

Siena (6-7 overall, 4-4 MAAC) has grown accustomed to playing in these tight scenarios, dropping five of six one-goal games this season.

Not on Saturday.

In doing so, it keeps the Saints squarely in the MAAC playoff picture as it now occupies the fifth spot with the top six teams qualifying for the playoffs.  A loss would have potentially reduced the Saints’ playoff chances to a flicker of hope.

“I’ve been coaching for 16 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Siena Men’s Lacrosse head coach Liam Gleason. “We just kept telling the guys to believe.  Just believe.  It’s tough.  You see how much time is on the clock and you know you have to go quick.  I’m just so proud that they never lost the belief that we could win.”

In what was a rematch of last season’s MAAC Semifinals that the Saints also won, Dylan Pape was the main cog in giving Siena a chance, winning all six faceoffs that he took in the fourth quarter and surpassing the 400 ^– career faceoff wins plateau in the midst of it to become just the third player in program history to reach that threshold.

Several scorers stepped up including sophomore Travis Fry, who scored twice within 13 seconds of one another to pull the Saints within 10-9 with just 34 seconds left in play.

With Pape winning yet another faceoff, the West Islip, NY native quickly got the ball over to senior Jack Cavaioli who found freshman Patrick Radomski for the tying score with 24 seconds left.

As Pape took and won the next faceoff, Fry moved up past the restraining line, did a stutter step, and drew two defenders before dumping it off to Caden Olmstead, who fired a sidearm zinger past Jaspers goalkeeper Connor Hapward with just 2.6 seconds remaining to lift the Saints.

Siena received hat tricks from three players (Fry with three goals and two assists), Pratt Reynolds (three goals, one assist), and Olmstead (three goals) while Trevor Marsala had a monster defensive effort with five ground balls and four caused turnovers.

In net, Arcuri made 13 saves for the Saints while Pape finished by winning 15 of 22 faceoffs (.682).

Manhattan (5-8, 5-3 MAAC) was led by James Basile, who had two goals and an assist.

One of the MAAC’s top scorers Kyle Gucwa was held to one goal and one assist on seven shots including three shots on goal.

Siena held a slim 39-37 shots advantage and Manhattan had a two-shots-on-goal edge (23-21).

The Saints have now won 17 of the past 19 matchups with the Jaspers.

Siena returns to action next Saturday in the season finale at Mount St. Mary’s (1-13, 1-7  MAAC) at 4 p.m.

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