James Basile celebrating after his game-winning goal against Quinnipiac.
GOJASPERS/COURTESY
By Isaiah Rosario, Sports Editor
The Jaspers’ quarterfinal game against Quinnipiac was a game that looked straight out of a movie in Saturday’s victory for the Manhattan College men’s lacrosse team.
In the last matchup between the two programs, it was a close, high-scoring game with the Jaspers coming on top 15-12, so fans knew they would be in store for quite a matchup.
From the start of the game, it looked like Manhattan would take full control as they took an early 3-0 lead but that would change quite quickly. After the scorching hot start for the Jaspers, they began to be ice cold as the Bobcats went on to score 7 unanswered goals to make the score 7-3.
The game would quickly seem out of reach for the Jaspers as the fans were silent and the team was staggered.
At times it felt like a Bobcats home game while their fans seemed to be cheering every single minute as they had something new to root for in addition to John DeLucia scoring his second goal. Hearts began to break with five minutes to go in the third as it looked like a comeback for the Jaspers may not be feasible, but contradictory to everyone’s beliefs, it most certainly was.
With two and a half minutes left, the defense and offense locked in as Liam Peabody scored for the Jaspers to make the score 6-11. Following him was a goal by Kelly DuPree to make the score 7-11. While looking up at the scoreboard, fans quickly realized it was only a four-goal game heading into the fourth quarter. The game was back in reach, and not over yet.
Soon it was a one-goal game after a goal from Scott O’Connor. Gaelic Park was rocking with fans on their feet and accepted students and their parents watching on their phones – all rooting for one cause, a Jasper comeback story.
The Jasper comeback was officially completed when DuPree tied the game at 11. There was a sense of relief in the air as no one wanted senior and graduate players’ last game to be a blowout and have their last two MAAC tournament games be opening-round losses.
Hearts dropped at Gaelic when fans thought the comeback may be crushed when Evan Perry scored to put the Bobcats up one, but the Jaspers rallied back to score two goals in less than a minute to put them up one with 1:23 left to go in the game. The Bobcats were not going to give up easily – Ryan Donnery scored the equalizer with less than a minute to go.
With the possibility of overtime looming, James Basile took the game into his hands and made sure overtime would not happen. Basile scored with six seconds to go with an assist from Drew Hiner to win the game 14-13. Gaelic erupted in thunder with Jasper fans knowing they were moving on to play their next game against the Long Island University Sharks.
James Basile spoke with The Quadrangle following his game-winning goal.
“I didn’t have my best shooting day by any means but our defense came up with clutch stops,” Basile said. “James Hogan was unbelievable all day giving us the ball which just kept on leading to more and more opportunities and my buddy Drew Hinder found me inside. I turned, shot, and I scored so it was a great feeling.”
From the time the game was 5-11, the Jaspers went on a 9-2 run to solidify the win. The offensive and defense were able to pick up the slack from the first couple of quarters. In the first couple of quarters, the defense looked sloppy giving Quinnipiac anything they wanted but locked in to secure the win.
“It’s no quit,” goalkeeper Connor Hapward said. “We say it all the time and just gotta be up by one at the end of the game. We never faltered. 55 James Hogan was crushing it at the faceoff. The best defense is not playing defense. That guy got us the ball every possession. Our defense just never wavered. We just like to keep going hard. Keep getting hands on, keep pressuring them and we knew our offense would get it done and they did.”
This win for the Jaspers showed their heart, resilience and determination to not to give up in challenging games like this. No matter how big their deficit may have been, they believed that they were still in it.
“[Quinnipiac] came out after we went up three zip. They came out in a zone, kind of shut us down for a little bit,” Quinn Bower said. “This team’s got no quit and we got a lot of adversity. We faced it all year, and we bounced back and got the W. I think it shows a lot about what this team is about, a lot about what our culture is about. We’re ready to get the next one.”
A couple of weeks back, the Jaspers lost a difficult game to Siena. Head coach Doug Sage and his squad made sure to take lessons from that game and use them in this quarterfinal matchup.
“This is who we are as a program and as a school,” Sage said. “It’s a little grittier here in the Bronx, that’s who we are. Two weeks ago, we lost a tough one to Siena and we let up four goals in 47 seconds … I think that was a tough life lesson that we learned as a program. For us, we just keep working and keep grinding. We know good things will come if you just keep working and staying together. For us, we just have to keep the faith, keep believing and we’ll be alright, win or lose. We have a great group of guys that support each other and do everything together.”
With this win, Gaelic Park will now host the semi-finals and finals of the MAAC Championships. Despite Sacred Heart joining the MAAC in 2024-25, they, along with LIU, are unable to host the semi-finals and finals due to those programs not being full member institutions in the MAAC. The semifinal matchup with LIU is set for Thursday.