PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville men's lacrosse team had its playoff hopes take a hit on Saturday afternoon, as Messiah College scored seven of the game's last eight goals to secure a 9-3 victory over the Valiants in Middle Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action at GoValiants.com Field.

The defeat drops Manhattanville (5-8, 4-4 MAC) into a tie for sixth place in the conference with Eastern University with two games to play. The Eagles hold the tiebreaker with the Valiants due to their 7-2 win in Purchase on April 1. Messiah (7-5, 5-3 MAC) advanced into a three-way tie for third place with its victory.

Goals were hard to come by for Manhattanville against the Falcons, as three Valiants scored once each on the afternoon. Senior Vinny Menzenski (Yorktown, N.Y.) and junior Joey Hasbrouck (Wantagh, N.Y.) each recorded tallies in the first quarter to keep the home team close, but the could only manage a fourth-quarter score by freshman Charlie Ogalin (Trumbull, Conn.) the rest of the way.

Messiah, meanwhile, had seven different players find the back of the net, led by the two goals apiece from senior Jeff Ziegler and sophomore J.J. Miller. Junior Nate Windon led all players with three points on a goal and two assists for the Falcons.

The game was fairly evenly played, with the Falcons holding a 33-24 edge in total shots, including a 22-8 advantage in the first 30 minutes of play. Where the Falcons excellent was at the center dot, as the visitors won 12 of 15 faceoffs, including an 11-3 mark (with 11 groundballs) by Miller.

The Valiants struck first in the crucial conference matchup, as Menzenski took a pass from Hasbrouck and ripped a shot past Messiah netmider Greg Latimer 1:16 into the game. But Miller provided a quick and emphatic response, as the sophomore won the faceoff to himself and then charged the net of junior goaltender Andrew Predun (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) for an easy put away only six seconds later.

Miller scored his second of the afternoon 2:35 later to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead, but Manhattanville tied the game a few minutes later as Hasbrouck struck off an assist by Ogalin with 8:59 left in the first quarter.

Once again Messiah was able to quickly answer a Valiant strike, as junior Brent Stewart scored an unassisted tally 1:12 after Hasbrouck's goal to put the visitors up after 15 minutes, 3-2.

Messiah kept Manhattanville at bay for the next two quarters, as the Valiants did not score on just four shots on goal in the second and third periods. Over that time, the Falcons scored three times to take a 6-2 lead into the fourth.

Ogalin looked to give the Valiants some life with 8:29 left in the game, as the freshman corralled the rebound of a shot by junior Lance Schulman (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) and beat Latimer for his fifth tally of the season. But Messiah's Matt Ayre killed any Valiant momentum 22 seconds later, as the senior scored while the Falcons were up two men to make the score 7-3 in favor of the visitors, and the Falcons cruised to a win.

Predun finished with 11 saves on 20 shots to keep Manhattanville close, while Latimer also made 11 stops but on just 14 shots to earn the victory.

Manhattanville will play its final road game of the 2009 regular season on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. against FDU-Florham. Messiah hosts Elizabethtown College on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.

2009-04-18