PURCHASE, NY – The Manhattanville College men's lacrosse team opened the 2018 season with a win in the Battle for Anderson Hill Road Saturday afternoon, beating Purchase College 17-5.
 
Manhattanville (1-0) received a combined four goals and four assists from sophomore transfers Gianni Ciffone (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac), Nick Golio (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) and Nick Delia (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown South) while graduate student Andrew Murray (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac), senior Tyler Bentrewicz (Hicksville, N.Y./Hicksville), junior Erik Sparby (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) and sophomore Ty Arnone (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Our Lady of Lourdes) each had two goals apiece. In all, eight Valiants recorded at least two points. Sophomore goalie Jason Frezza (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Portledge) earned his first career win, stopping 10 of Purchase's 15 shots on goal.
 
Murray struck twice in the opening six minutes, sandwiched around a Sparby goal. Following a Purchase timeout, sophomore T.J. Caccavo (Carlsbad, Calif./San Marcos) made it 4-0, then Delia made it 5-0 less than a minute later. Brentrewicz added the final goal of the quarter with just under two and a half minutes left.
 
The Valiants pushed their lead to 8-0 in the second quarter with goals from Ciffone and junior Brandon Neff (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista) before Purchase (0-1) struck twice in eight seconds, courtesy of a goal directly off a faceoff win by Ben Erkan. The Valiants answered with two goals over the next two minutes, one each from Sparby and Golio, giving Manhattanville a 10-2 halftime lead.
 
The third quarter was all Valiants, with Ciffone and Bentrewicz each scoring their second of the game, and Delia, Arnone, and sophomore Ryan Leonard (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Valley) all scoring their first. Manhattanville's five goals in the period went unanswered for a 15-2 advantage heading to the final frame.
 
Arnone struck again in the final quarter and senior Christian Flores (Hartford, Conn./Avon) added Manhattanville's final goal of the day. Dylan Gethicker scored three times in less than five minutes, giving him a game-high four goals for the Panthers.
 
Manhattanville is back in action on Wednesday in a road contest against Farmingdale State at 6:00 pm. The team's home opener against Western Connecticut State is scheduled for Tuesday, March 6 at 4:00 p.m. on the turf at GoValiants.com Field.