GENEVA, N.Y. – Making their season debut on the ice, the Manhattanville College men's hockey team was defeated by Hobart College 9-2 on Saturday afternoon. The loss will move the Valiants to 0-1-0 to open the year, and moves the all-time series against the Statesmen back to even at 24-24-6.

Despite the final score, the Valiants scored first and held the lead through the entire first period. Jarod Lavallee (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) would record the first Manhattanville goal of the 2021 season off an assist from Mason Emoff (Collingwood, Ont./Bishop's College School) seven minutes after puck drop. Alexei Masanko (West Milford, N.J./Don Bosco Prep) would successfully stop all 17 Hobart shots on net through the opening 20 minutes.

While the Valiants were able to get the upper hand in the opening period, the Statesmen erupted for eight goals in the second. Just under three minutes into the period, Hobart would record the equalizer on a Jackson Alexeev goal. Matthew Iasenza would give the Statesmen their first lead of the night a minute later. Hobart would score twice more in the first 11 minutes of the second, staking claim to a 4-1 lead.

The Statesmen would completely pull away with six minutes remaining in the period. A major and game misconduct penalty on the Valiants put Hobart on an extended power play opportunity, during which the Statesmen would score four more times with the man advantage.

Seven minutes into the third period, Hobart's Wil Crane scored his third tally of the night to complete the hat trick. The Valiants would manage to get one back late in the period on Niko Happo's (Kauniainen, Finland/Haukilahti Upper Secondary School) first goal of the year, but that would be all as Manhattanville suffered the season-opening loss.

Masanko made 30 total saves for the Crimson and White, allowing six goals in 36 minutes of play. He was spelled midway through the second period by Reid Robertson (Plano, Texas/Plano West), who made 21 saves while allowing three goals to close out the game.

Up Next
The Valiants will be back in action on Friday when they host Wilkes University for their home opener at 7 p.m.

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