PURCHASE, N.Y. – Opening up their Skyline Conference slate with the Battle for Anderson Hill Road, the Manhattanville College men's lacrosse team got back into the win column on Friday night, defeating Purchase College 16-5. The win snaps a seven-game skid for the Valiants, who improve to 2-7 on the year.

In their highest-scoring game of the season, the Valiants enjoyed a career night by Nick Cornelia (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst). The senior accounted for half of the team's tallies, scoring eight goals while dishing out an assist. Jesse McGrath (Walden, N.Y./Valley Central), Matt Schneider (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) and Sean Larkin (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) all enjoyed four point nights as well as part of the win. McGrath collected all his points via goals, while Schneider scored a pair and collected two assists and Larkin had three helpers along with his goal.

The Valiants took claim to a 5-3 lead at the end of a back-and-forth first quarter. Cornelia got a start on his monster night four minutes in, tallying an unassisted goal to open up the scoring. Purchase responded with a pair of goals to take their first lead of the night before McGrath evened the score with his 15^th of the season with 6:43 left in the period. The grad student struck again 48 seconds later before Cornelia's second of the night gave the Valiants a 4-2 lead with five minutes to go. Purchase's Cristian Ishoo pulled the Panthers back within one with 50 seconds to go, but Cornelia completed his first quarter hat trick 16 seconds before the horn to put the Valiants back up by a pair.

Cornelia's last-second goals began a 10-0 run for the Valiants that spanned across three quarters as Manhattanville took charge. The Crimson and White scored all six goals of the second quarter, running out to an 11-3 lead at the half. Schneider got the stanza started with his fourth of the year off Cornelia's assist 1:22 into the period before Jean-Paul Harris (Miami, Fla./American Heritage School) scored his second of the campaign from Larkin with 10:45 to go. Cornelia and Schneider reversed roles on the third goal of the period as the Valiants jumped ahead by five. McGrath struck again with 7:17 to play before Cornelia scored twice more to close out the half. Cornelia's fifth of the night was assisted by Patrick Magliocchino (Thornwood, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) with the man advantage.

The run continued into the third period as Manhattanville scored the first three of the period. McGrath was the first on the board in the second half on Schenider's second assist before Cornelia and Schenider each netted a man-up goal assisted by Larkin, putting the Valiants up 14-3. Larkin and Cornelia would each add one more in the fourth quarter to close out the dominant win.

Jason Frezza (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Portledge) picked up the win with 48:21 in net, making 11 saves while allowing four goals. The tandem of Cody Johnston (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) and Mike Hopkins (Fox Lane, N.Y./Fox Lane) played the final 10:39, combining for three saves and one goal allowed.

Kevin Rafferty (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and Nick Padovani (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) had five ground balls apiece to lead the Valiants. Padovani also had eight faceoff wins for the road team. Manhattanville had only five caused turnovers in the win, with Nolan Nye (Emerson, N.J./Emerson Junior-Senior), Bryson Buchanan (Paterson, N.J./Paramus Catholic) and Melchi Agyapong (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Hayes) joining Rafferty and McGrath with caused turnovers.

Up Next
The Valiants will look to carry momentum from this one into their next conference game, playing host to Maritime on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

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