Box Score Box Score

MADISON, N.J. – The Manhattanville men's lacrosse team outscored the Devils of FDU-Florham 4-1 in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night's Freedom Conference contest, but it wasn't enough as the Devils held on for a 10-9 victory. Three players had multi-goal games for the Valiants, including junior Bill Motherway (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park), who scored with two seconds left in regulation to give him his team leading third of the game.
 
The Valiants were held to only seven shots in the first half of the contest but converted on five including the first two goals of the game as freshman Corey Steimel (Wyckoff, N.J./Ramapo) gave Manhattanville a 2-0 lead with 9:12 left in the first quarter. FDU-Florham responded just over four minutes later to trim the lead in half at 2-1, but Motherway gave Manhattanville their two-goal cushion back with just 59 seconds remaining in the opening period.
 
In the second quarter the Valiants opened up their largest lead of the night at 4-1 when sophomore Brendan Kuntz (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) got the scoring started just 38 seconds in the second stanza. FDU-Florham stormed back scoring three quick goals to tie the game in a span of less than two minutes, with the tying goal coming with 9:15 to go in the first half.
 
With 5:27 to go, junior Will Sahakian (Natick, Mass./Rivers School) put the Valiants back up by a goal after receiving a pass from freshman Connor Castleman (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) to give the Valiants a 5-4 lead heading into the halftime break. The lead at halftime was only the fourth time in 12 games this season that Manhattanville had an edge at the intermission.
 
In the third quarter however, the Devils shut out their guests and in the process converted on five of their 10 shots in the quarter to take a 9-5 lead into the final quarter. Brian Goodwine and Jake Higgins each scored twice in the five-goal period for FDU-Florham.
 
The Valiants trimmed their four-goal deficit in half as Motherway and Sahakian got on the board for the second time each in the game to make the score 9-7 with 13:24 to go in regulation. The Devils scored what proved to be the game-winning goal next as Paul Colflesh put one past Manhattanville netminder Dom Poletto (Engelwood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) to increase their lead to 10-7 with still ample time for the Valiants to get back into the contest.
 
Castleman picked up his second point of the night with a goal at the 7:35 mark to pull the Valiants within two. With time working against the Valiants, two penalties forced the visitors into a pair of separate man-down situations which they killed off; however, the penalties killed any offensive momentum the Valiants had. After getting back to even strength, Manhattanville got on the board once more as Motherway netted his third goal of the night with two seconds remaining.
 
With the ensuing faceoff the Valiants knew they needed to draw the ball forward and rip a quick shot for any chance at overtime, but the Devils were able to win the draw and hold off the late surge by Manhattanville. Despite being outshot by nearly 20 shots, the Valiants held their own against the preseason favorites of the league and fell by only one goal.
 
In other team statistics, Manhattanville turned the ball over 15 times to FDU-Florham's 10 turnovers. The Valiants won only 6-of-20 faceoffs, and converted on 16-of-22 clear attempts while the Devils converted on all but two of their 17 attempts.
 
In goal, Poletto falls to 2-9 on the season while making 10 stops and allowing all 10 Devil goals in 60 minutes of field time. While on the other end of the turf George Beck earned the victory while stopping eight Manhattanville shots and letting in the nine Valiant tallies.
 
Manhattanville (2-10, 0-2 Freedom) continue league play on Saturday afternoon when they host the Eastern Eagles at 1 p.m. with game coverage available on both GoValiants.com and GoValiants.TV. FDU-Florham (5-6, 1-1 Freedom) will also return to play on Saturday when they travel to Dallas, Pa. to take on Misericordia at 4 p.m.