PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College men's lacrosse team opened the 2019 season Wednesday night, Feb. 27, with a 13-9 victory over future Skyline Conference foe Farmingdale State College at GoValiants.com Field.
The Valiants (1-0) and Rams (1-1) played a very tight first two quarters and went into the half knotted at 3-3. Farmingdale kicked off the scoring at 10:02 in the first, but junior
Gianni Ciffone (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) came back shortly thereafter to tie it at 1-1 at 8:55 with his first of the game – the attackman finished the evening with six goals and one assist to lead Manhattanville. Ciffone scored once again with 3:52 remaining, with the assist coming from classmate and fellow attacker
Will Duval (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay) – he assisted on both of Ciffone's first quarter scores. The Valiants led 2-1 after one. The Rams struck first in the second quarter at 9:51, but rookie attackman
Harrison Yoguez (Trumbull, Conn./St. Joseph (H.S.)) evened it up at 6:33 in the second with his first-career goal and the score remained that way until the break.
Junior
T.J. Caccavo (Carlsbad, Calif./San Marcos) kicked off the second half just 00:58 in to put the Valiants up 4-3 and opened the scoring floodgates for the remainder of the contest. Farmingdale tied it at 4-4 with 12:44 left in the third quarter, but Manhattanville scored the next two to take a 6-4 lead. Senior longstick midfielder
Soya Goto (Rye, N.Y./Rye) won the faceoff with 12:40 on the clock and proceeded to run downfield and score his eighth-career goal. Caccavo followed at 11:14 – assisted by junior
Nick Delia (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown South) – for the two-goal advantage.
Farmingdale got one back to make it 6-5 at 10:28, but Ciffone scored once again for the Valiants to make it 7-5 at 9:19. The Rams got one back again at 8:09 and nearly five minutes passed before another goal was scored. Manhattanville closed out the third quarter with a pair from Delia (2:25) and Duval (2:39) and led 9-6 heading into the fourth.
The Rams started the fourth with a goal 00:34 in to make it 9-7, but Duval scored his second of the game in a man-up situation with 13:12 left in regulation. Farmingdale State scored again at 11:01 and once again, the Valiants came right back with an answer from Ciffone for the 11-8 lead at 9:59. The Rams scored once more with 8:41 remaining, but Manhattanville closed out the contest with two more goals from Ciffone at 4:33 and in a man-up situation at 2:41.
Highlights:
- Junior
Jason Frezza (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Portledge) made 20 stops on 29 shots for his first win of the season.
- Ciffone finished with seven points, while Duval notched four. The latter also picked up five ground balls and two caused turnovers.
- Caccavo closed the game with three points.
- Goto picked up two faceoff wins, caused two turnovers and had one ground ball.
- Manhattanville was 20-of-24 on clearing attempts, while the Rams were 16-of-20.
- The Valiants were 2-for-4 on extra man opportunities.
Manhattanville returns to the field for another home game this Saturday, March 2, for The Battle of Anderson Hill Road against neighboring Purchase College at 1:00 p.m.
