Men's Lacrosse | 3/30/2018 12:00:00 PM
The Highlanders look for their first win of the season, and their first win against the Jasper's in a Saturday matinee game.
ALL TIME SERIES
The Highlanders and Jaspers have been playing each other since NJIT became a varsity program in 2015.
In their first game against each other, Manhattan came out with the 7-5 win. The Jaspers took an early 5-2 lead in the first quarter, but the Highlanders never gave up trying to fight their way back.
2016 was a different story, and the Highlanders fell 14-5, despite outshooting Manhattan 55-31 in the game, the most shot the Highlanders ever produced in a game. NJIT also led in ground balls and goalie
Nick Marzullo posted a career-high 21 saves in the loss.
Last season was a low scoring 13 goal game, with Manhattan coming out ahead 9-4. The Highlanders had just come off a win against Hampton.
A LOOK AT THE JASPERS
Manhattan is 3-6 on the season, and currently on a four-game losing streak with their last loss coming from Marist, 12-4.
The Highlanders and Jaspers share six opponents in 2018. Manhattan fell to Monmouth and UMass-Lowell who NJIT has not played yet, and lost to Wagner earlier in the season. The Jaspers also tallied win against VMI and Lafayette. Manhattan will play Quinnipiac after NJIT, the Highlanders fell to the Bobcats mid-season.
The Jaspers were picked to finish last in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference pre-season poll. So far Manhattan are 0-2 in conference play, with losses against pre-season favorite Monmouth 12-8 and most recently Marist.
Parker Giarratana is Manhattan's top man, leading the team in both goals with 17 and assists with 12.
Four other Jaspers have double-digit points in Luke Hanson (8g, 11a), Sean MacKinney (10g, 2a), Trevor Pelletier (7g, 5a) and Brandon Grinnell (8a, 2a).
Joseph Bressingham leads the team in ground balls with 27 and is 50-for-111 at the face-off circle.
Michael Zingaro has started all eight games in net for Manhattan and holds a .545 save percentage with 90 saves. Zingaro ranks 16
th in the nation in saves per game (11.25), 18
th in save percentage (.545) and 43
rd in goals against average (10.41).
A LOOK AT THE HIGHLANDERS
The Highlanders fell to Wagner 7-5 on Saturday in their lowest goal accumulation contest of the year, with only 12 goals scored during the game. The Highlanders won all but one face-off against the Seahawks, their best percentage in program history, and they held the edge in shots 35-26 and ground balls 29-14.
Aaron Forster leads the team in every offensive category with 26 goals, eight assists for 34 total points. The junior recently posted his 100
th career points, and has a 24 game point scoring streak going on. He is also one of eight active players with a goal scoring streak, ranking fourth on that list. Against Wagner Forster tallied his sixth career game with a hat-trick.
Four other Highlanders have-double digit points on the year in
Cole Robillard (13g, 3a),
Ryan Darrow (8g, 5a),
Ryan Kaden (5g, 5a) and freshman
Max Wilson (3g, 7a). Kaden recently moved up the NJIT career rankings, moving into second all-time in assists (15) and seventh in goals (14).
The nine other goal scorers for the Highlanders are either freshmen or sophomores.
Defender
John Tachon leads the team in ground balls (57) and caused turnovers (17) and is one more caused turnover away from breaking his own record for caused turnovers in a season. Tachon recorded a career-high 12 ground balls in the game at Wagner.
Adam Gonzalez is coming off a career-game winning 14-out-of-15 face-offs against Wagner. The sophomore moved up to fourth all-time on in the NJIT record books for career face-offs won (65) and third in career attempts (184).
Nick Marzullo has been the Highlanders mainstay in net this season, starting all 11 games. The senior has 118 saves on the year, and 559 total in his career with five games left to play.
