Senior attackman Ty Caffarelli scored seven goals as Monmouth rolled over Manhattan in their season opener on Friday, Feb. 6. The game was originally scheduled for the following day on Saturday, but due to weather concerns, the game was moved up one day.
Caffarelli, who scored a team high 34 goals in his junior season, broke the single-game goal record for the Hawks with his seven in the victory.
The victory avenged a season-opening loss for the Hawks last season, when Manhattan came into Kessler Stadium and beat Monmouth 9-7.
The story was a lot different this season. Although Manhattan scored the first goal a little over a minute into the game, the Hawks exploded for eight goals in the first quarter, more than they scored in the entire game against the Jaspers last season. Three of those goals were scored by Caffarelli, all of which came within a two minute span in the final minutes of the quarter. Senior attackman Connor Gorman and junior attackman Brendan Dundas had two goals each in the quarter, and senior midfielder Nick Teets scored the first goal of the game for the Hawks a few minutes after Manhattan’s game-opening goal.
With an 8-3 lead to begin the second quarter, Caffarelli added his fourth goal a little over three minutes in, and Teets scored his second less than a minute later to extend the lead to 10-3. Manhattan added a goal about halfway through the quarter, but Teets responded with two seconds remaining in the half to beat the horn and re-extend Monmouth’s lead to 11-4 heading into halftime.
To begin the second half, Caffarelli scored his fifth goal to extend the lead to eight. After a fifth Manhattan goal, senior midfielder Riley Chester joined the scoring party for Monmouth, scoring his first of the season and his fifth of his career.
A Manhattan goal cut the lead to 13-6, but Caffarelli answered with two goals, one coming at the end of the third quarter and one at the beginning of the fourth. Those two increased his goal count to seven on the game. Manhattan scored three goals in the final two minutes of the game to make the final score a more respectable 15-9.
Caffarelli finished with seven points on seven goals. He was named CAA Offensive Player of the Week for his performance. Teets had three goals and two assists for five points. Gorman had two goals and two assists, and Dundas had two goals and one assist. Chester’s goal was his lone point. Senior midfielder Ryan O’Rourke, the team leader in assists last season, had two assists in this game. Junior midfielder Matt Porazzo, sophomore long-stick midfielder Gavin Seaman, and junior attackman Brady Brown all added assists of their own. Junior goalkeeper Dylan Cadigan got his first career start in net for the Hawks, and he made six saves on 15 shots on goal.
Part of the reason the Hawks controlled this game was their domination in the face-off circle, as they won 20 faceoffs to Manhattan’s six. Sophomore face-off specialist Landon Parker took 13 of the 26 face-offs, and he won 11 of them. Junior face-off specialist Will Hohn Jr. took 10 face-offs and won 8 of them. Junior face-off specialist Jack O’Neill also took three faceoffs in his Hawks debut, winning one of them.
The Hawks outshot the Jaspers 41-32. 61% of Monmouth’s shots were on goal, compared to only 47% for Manhattan. Monmouth also dominated in ground balls 30-13, getting over double the amount Manhattan did.
If there was one thing for Monmouth to work on from this game, it would be their turnovers. They actually had more than Manhattan did in this game, with 18 compared to the Jaspers’ 14.
The Hawks now have seven days of rest before returning to action on Saturday, Feb. 14 against Long Island University. LIU also opened their season last Friday, winning 14-12 against a Mount St. Mary’s team that Monmouth will face later on in the season. Opening face-off for that game will be at 1 p.m. in Shark Stadium.
