MADISON, NJ – Five unanswered goals across the second and third quarters kickstarted a three-goal comeback for the Manhattanville College men's lacrosse team Wednesday night as the Valiants won their first MAC Freedom game of the season, beating the FDU-Florham Devils, 13-9.

Sophomore Will Duval (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay) finished with a team-high six points for Manhattanville (6-5, 1-1 MACF), one of a quartet of Valiants with two goals, including graduate student Andrew Murray (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and sophomores Gianni Ciffone (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and T.J. Caccavo (Carlsbad, Calif./San Marcos). Junior Tristan Green (Easton, Conn./Joel Barlow) led all Manhattanville goal scorers with his second career hat trick. Will Charbonneau and David Stewart each finished with a hat trick for FDU-Florham (3-6, 1-1 MACF).

The Devils took a 4-1 lead in the first eight minutes behind two goals from Stewart, with Ciffone netting Manhattanville's lone goal. Green answered with two straight goals to close the deficit to one, but FDU-Florham scored both with five seconds left in the first quarter AND 10 seconds into the second quarter to push its lead back to three at 6-3.

The Valiants seized control from there, as Caccavo sandwiched his two goals around one from Duval to tie the game, with freshman goalie Mike McGrath (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) stopping six FDU-Florham shots during that span. Off a ground ball, and assist, from junior Soya Goto (Rye, N.Y./Rye), Duval scored with 1:18 left in the second quarter, giving the Valiants a one goal lead at the half.

At 12:52 of the third quarter, Green capped the five-goal rally with his hat trick-completing goal. After the Devils answered Green's goal 48 seconds later, Murray and Duval both scored, putting Manhattanville up 10-7 at the 8:56 mark. Both defenses locked in from there, as the teams combined for five caused turnovers and just four shots on goal the rest of the quarter.

Sophomore Nick Delia (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown South) and Charbonneau opened the fourth quarter scoring, trading goals 33 seconds apart. With just under 11 minutes to play, off a turnover caused by Goto, junior Sam Hahn (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y./Briarcliff) grabbed the ground ball, completed the clear, and scored just his second career goal to put Manhattanville up four. After Stewart completed his hat trick with just under seven minutes to play, Murray countered with his 26^th goal of the season at 5:41.

Goto, Hahn, and senior Jake Cayton (Stratford, Conn./Stratford) each had four ground balls to lead Manhattanville, while Duval and sophomore Conor Keough (East Longmeadow, Mass./Suffield) caused three turnovers each, and sophomore Ty Arnone (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Our Lady of Lourdes) won seven of nine second-half faceoffs. McGrath finished with nine saves and a .692 save percentage in relief of sophomore Jason Frezza (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Portledge).

Manhattanville continues MAC Freedom play this Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. road clash against Wilkes.