PURCHASE, N.Y. – King's (Pa.) College outscored Manhattanville College 7-2 over the first 30 minutes of play and the Valiants could never recover in suffering a 13-7 defeat to the Monarchs in both teams' MAC Freedom opener on Saturday afternoon at GoValiants.com Field.
 
Senior Christian Flores (Hartford, Conn./Avon) led Manhattanville (5-5, 0-1 MAC Freedom) with a career-high three goals, while sophomore Will Duval (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay) assisted on two of those three tallies on the way to a career-best four helpers. Junior Soya Goto (Rye, N.Y./Rye) added a goal and a game-high eight ground balls as well.
 
The first 15 minutes of action were evenly played, with both teams taking eight shots and both goalies turning aside four of them. King's scored the first two goals of the game, but Flores scored his first of the afternoon with 3:14 remaining to get the home team back within one at the end of the quarter.
 
The pivotal frame was the second, which saw King's outscore Manhattanville by a 5-1 margin to take control of the contest. Four of the goals came in less than three minutes early in the period, putting the Valiants in a deep hole.
 
Flores scored his second of the game while up a man early in the third quarter to get the Valiants within four at 7-3, but King's responded with a man-up goal of its own less than two minutes later and the home team could only play the Monarchs even the rest of the way.
 
Manhattanville had its fair share of opportunities, holding a 39-31 edge in shots, but King's netminder Matt Basile came up with 14 saves in the win, including nine stops in the final 30 minutes. Freshman Mike McGrath (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) earned his first career start for the Valiants, making four saves in 35:41 of action to suffer the loss.
 
The Valiants will look to snap their four-game losing streak on Wednesday with a key MAC Freedom matchup at FDU-Florham beginning at 7 p.m.