Photo Credit: Manhattan College Men’s Lacrosse Website Slider
Manhattan College is coming off a 5-10 2014 season where the finished only in front of first year Monmouth in MAAC conference play. This year the team will look to bounce back in hopes of winning the MAAC over such teams as Siena, Detroit Mercy, and Marist who had a great 2014. The one thing that will be tough is this team lost some seniors on the offensive side and their starting goalie.
One player who is a bright spot for this team is Andrew Hurst from Babylon Long Island. Hurst was second on the team with 25 points last season. He had 2 goals vs. UNC and a 4 point game vs. Marist. Look for Andrew to pile up the points for the Jaspers in his senior year this spring.
Another player who had double digit points last season who are back are Junior Nick Strano from Rocky Point Long Island, who had 10 points. Tyler Eidel out of Missouri only had 7 last season, but looks for a bigger role in 2015.
Some freshmen that can make an impact are Andrew Gresham from British Columbia and Zach Mermelstein who grew up not far from the Manhattan campus but did a post grad year at the Hill academy.
On the defensive side of the ball the team has some guys that can compete for the job in net. Senior Michael Wiatrak played in one game last year making 3 saves on 7 shots. The other option is sophomore Jonathan Cottrell who made zero saves last year and only saw 1 shot in game action. The team also brought in freshmen Michael Zingaro and Antthony Cicio who both can push for the starting role.
For long poles, the team saw a bunch of different player’s return that played better time and got some starts under their belts. The team also has a great defensive coach in John Lade that can make sure this is a strong unit.
Manhattan was one win away of making the MAAC playoffs last year. So you know that has to hurt and all the focus is on the team making it this 2015 season. The Jaspers will have a tough rode a head of them but they sure can do it.
