PURCHASE, N.Y. – It was Senior Day for the Manhattanville College men's lacrosse team on Tuesday, but two sophomores, Andrew Murray (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and Zach Hoffman (Loudonville, N.Y./LaSalle Institute), led the Valiants to a huge 8-7 (5OT) victory over the DeSales University Bulldogs in Freedom Conference action at GoValiants.com Field. After 72:23 of game time, Murray ended it with the first shot of the quintuple-overtime frame.

The game, which lasted almost two and a half hours and featured 76:23 of game time, is the longest in program history and the first Freedom Conference win for the Valiants since April 28, 2012. With this victory, Manhattanville (5-8, 1-4 Freedom) remains alive in the hunt for a postseason berth. Combined with Misericordia University's 9-4 win over King's (Pa.) College tonight, Manhattanville can earn its first Freedom Conference Tournament berth in program history with a win over King's in Saturday's regular-season finale.

After four scoreless overtimes, DeSales won the faceoff to start the ninth frame but senior Cory Balog (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) quickly forced a turnover to gain Manhattanville possession. After a Valiant timeout, Murray had the ball in his crosse to restart play and the sophomore ran across the formation before firing a long-range missile past DSU netminder Matt Warnken for his fifth goal of the game.

The story at the other end of the field was Hoffman, who came up with big save after big save. The sophomore finished the game with a career-high 23 saves, the most by a Valiant since Andrew Predun '10 turned aside 24 shots in a 9-8 loss to Elizabethtown College on April 17, 2010.
 
After conceding the first four goals on the first half, the Valiants finally got on the board at the 12:42 mark of the second quarter when sophomore Colin Morrissey (Shelton, Conn./St. Joseph) scored his 12th goal of the season.
 
The Valiants added two more goals before halftime, cutting the deficit to 4-3 before the teams reached the break. Sophomore Ed Motherway (Suffield, Conn./Suffield) scored on a great individual effort, before Murray scored his 26th goal of the season with just 1:43 remaining in the half.
 
The Bulldogs were the first to get on the board in the second half when freshman Josh Harman extended the DeSales lead to 5-3. Junior Connor Normandin (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) cut the deficit to 5-4 with 8:05 remaining in the third quarter. Murray added his second goal of the game just two minutes after Normandin's, tying things up at five. The sophomore wasn't finished there, as he would go on to complete the hat trick with just 3:25 remaining in the third to give the Valiants their first lead of the afternoon.
 
Joe Neggia picked up his fourth goal of the afternoon, tying the game at six just 1:27 into the fourth quarter. Murray countered with his fourth of the game, giving the Valiants the lead again at 7-6, but Ryan Rowse found the net at the 9:03 mark of the quarter. That was the last goal scored by either side for more than 23 minutes thanks to stellar performances between the pipes by Hoffman and Warnken.
 
Hoffman continued to produce big saves for the Valiants throughout the overtime frames, turning aside one shot in the first overtime and two shots in each of the next three frames. Both teams nearly ended things in the second overtime, as DeSales' Ryan Loughlin shot one off the post midway through the frame and Murray hit the crossbar just before time expired. Hoffman also came up with a huge point-blank denial of Neggia off the opening faceoff of the third overtime to help set up Murray's fifth-OT heroics.
 
After two more extra frames couldn't decide it, the Valiants finally won the longest game in program history, as Murray put home his fifth goal of the day just 23 seconds into the fifth overtime.
 
The win couldn't be a more perfect send-off for the six departing members of the Manhattanville team, as seniors Balog, Jack Polak (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow), Tony Ramos (Stratford, Conn./Saint Joseph), Tom Tarczali (Stratford, Conn./Saint Joseph) and Mike Arena (Stratford, Conn./Saint Joseph), as well as sophomore Lucas Carlin (Matamoras, Pa./Delaware Valley), played their last game at GoValiants.com Field today. Manhattanville will attempt to extend its season - and the careers of its seniors - on Saturday, when the team travels to King's for a 1 p.m. faceoff with the Monarchs.