PURCHASE, NY – A decisive face-off advantage and late push by Eastern held off a comeback attempt from the Manhattanville College men's lacrosse team Wednesday afternoon, as the Valiants dropped a 13-8 MAC Freedom decision  to the Eagles at GoValiants.Com Field.

Sophomore Gianni Ciffone (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) scored four goals for Manhattanville (7-6, 2-2 MACF), classmate Will Duval (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay) added a goal and three assists, and fellow classmate Nick Delia (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown South) added a goal and an assist, the third and final Valiant with multiple points in the game. Zach Bauer won 18 of 23 face-offs for Eastern (7-6, 4-0 MACF), Sean Fechter scored four times, and both Hassan Mackey and Trent Ashton recorded four points for the Eagles.

Eastern scored the game's first four goals, two coming from Fechter, before Ciffone got Manhattanville on the board in the final half-minute of the first quarter. The Eagles added the first three goals of the second quarter before graduate student Andrew Murray (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) added Manhattanville's second of the game in the final minute of the second quarter for a 7-2 Eastern halftime lead.

After Fechter and Mackey sandwiched goals around Ciffone's second of the game in the first five minutes of the second half, the Valiants scored three straight goals -- one each from Delia, Ciffone, and Duval --, slicing a six-goal deficit in half entering the fourth quarter, but that was as close as it got for Manhattanville.

Fechter and Jake Billera scored 40 seconds apart to start the fourth quarter and, despite goals from Ciffone and senior Christian Flores (Hartford, Conn./Avon), Manhattanville drew no closer than four goals over the final 15 minutes. Jameal Hadeed finished with 13 saves for Eastern, while freshman Mike McGrath (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) finished with 10 saves for the Valiants.

Manhattanville returns to action Saturday, when the members of the Class of 2018 will be honored on Senior Day prior to a 1:00 p.m. opening face-off with Misericordia.