Box Score FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – After falling behind by four goals at halftime, the Manhattanville men's lacrosse team pulled the game to within one goal but was unable to complete the comeback as the team fell on the road to the Farmingdale Rams by a 13-8 score on Wednesday afternoon.
 
The Game started off well for the Valiants as they took a 2-0 lead over the Rams on goals by freshman Connor Normandin (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) and senior Bill Motherway (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park) against Farmingdale goalkeeper Thomas Fallon. The two-goal lead stood for the next 40 seconds until Farmingdale found the back of the net for its first goal of the game.
 
The goal sparked a streak of six straight goals for the Rams as they opened up a 6-2 lead over the Valiants with just under 13 minutes remaining in the second quarter.
 
After Farmingdale went man-down after a cross-checking call, senior Peter Callahan (Fairfield, Conn./Salisbury School) scored his first goal of the season to trim the Rams' lead in half at 3-2 with 10:03 left in the second quarter. The Rams answered back with 6:25 left in the first half and regained its four-goal edge and into the halftime break.
 
At the intermission, Farmingdale had controlled most of the play as they outshot Manhattanville 27-4 in the first half. The Rams also had control of the faceoff 'X' winning 10-of-12 faceoffs, and had won the ground ball battle 27-12 through the first 30 minutes of play.
 
The Valiants struck first in the second half when junior Mike Arena (Stratford, Conn./Saint Joseph) netted his third goal of the season 3:13 into the period against newly entered backup goalie Tom McDevitt, to pull his squad back within three. Manhattanville got closer again in a man-up situation for the second time on the afternoon as it was senior Justin Figueroa (Ardsley, N.Y./Ardsley) after taking a pass from Motherway.
 
As time was winding down in the third quarter, Motherway scored Manhattanville's third straight goal and pulled the Valiants back within one goal.  However, Farmingdale scored once more in the final 40 seconds to take back a two-goal lead and send the game to the fourth quarter.
 
In the fourth quarter, Manhattanville again pulled the game within one goal as Callahan picked up his second goal of the game after taking a pass from Motherway to make the score 8-7 in favor of Farmingdale. The goal prompted the Rams to return Fallon to the net in effort to stop the run Manhattanville was on.
 
A series of Manhattanville turnovers gave the ball away to Farmingdale and the Rams capitalized scoring the next two goals off of takeaways. After the second goal, the Rams won the ensuing faceoff and came down the field eight seconds later and opened up an 11-7 lead.
 
Sophomore Cory Balog (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) ended the Rams' run with a goal at the 6:08 mark of the period after taking a pass from senior Will Sahakian (Natick, Mass./Rivers School). For Sahakian, it was his second assist of the afternoon.
 
Farmingdale scored again within 30 seconds, and then again with 1:49 left in regulation to put the game out of reach and give the home team a 13-8 victory.
 
At the end of the game, Farmingdale had outshot Manhattanville by a 43-20 margin, with shots on goal at a 27-14 clip. The home team also had the edge in ground balls and faceoffs. Meanwhile for the Valiants, they led in terms of man-up situations converting on 2-of-5 chances, and also held an edge in clears converting on 18-of-25 while Farmingdale was 13-for-16 on its clear attempts.
 
Earning the win was Fallon (2-4) after making three saves and yielding four of Manhattanville's eight goals. McDevitt had the same stat-line of four goals allowed while making three saves in a smaller dosing of 16:34 in goal for the Rams. Taking the loss was senior Dom Poletto (Engelwood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) (0-6) despite having another double-digit save effort with 14 stops while allowing 13 Ram goals.
 
Manhattanville (0-6) will look to snap its losing skid on the road in Massachusetts when they take on Clark this Saturday evening at 7 p.m. Farmingdale (2-4) will open up Skyline Conference play in its next game when it takes on Maritime on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.