Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. –  Despite an almost miraculous comeback, the Manhattanville men's lacrosse team fell to Middle Atlantic Conference foe Messiah College, 11-9, on Saturday afternoon at GoValiants.com Field.

The Valiants trailed by as many as seven late in the third quarter and rattled off six unanswered goals to cut the seven-goal deficit to a single tally with 1:36 remaining. Freshman Brian D'Iorio (Huntington, N.Y./Saint Anthony's) led the squad with five points on the afternoon, scoring twice and assisting on three goals. Sophomore Jeb Miller (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) scored three goals to lead the team in tallies.

Messiah scored the first two goals, before the Valiants tied the game on goals from D'Iorio and Miller late in the first quarter. The Falcons took a 6-3 lead after the second half and began their 7-0 run through the third quarter and lead 10-3 with 6:10 remaining in the third stanza.

Sophomore Bill Motherway (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park) broke the scoreless drought with 1:46 left in the third off a nice crisp pass from D'Iorio. Manhattanville countered with a 5-0 run of their own in the fourth quarter with man-up goals from Miller and D'Iorio and even strength tallies from senior Mike Strauss (Newark, Del./Wilmington Charter), junior Joe Daly (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) and Miller.

Miller cut the deficit to 10-6 after scoring back-to-back goals in the final period. D'Iorio made it just a three goal differential with sophomore Conor McAndrew (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) sending over the pass. Daly's shot from inside eight meters gave the Valiants their eighth goal of the game.  The Valiants almost made a “Valiant comeback” late in the game, as Strauss beat Falcons' netminder Zach Cureton to make it a 10-9 game.

Messiah used a timeout after the Valiants scored and added an insurance tally after winning the draw to take the two-goal edge. Sophomore Dom Poletto (Engelwood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) was impressive in goal, making 19 saves on 30 shots on goal.

Manhattanville (2-2, 0-1 MAC) will take on Misericordia on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. in a make-up game that was cancelled last week due to bad weather.