PURCHASE, N.Y. – Abbe Grimes' (Hamden, Conn.) third goal of the night with eight minutes left broke an 11-11 tie and propelled the Valiants to a 13-12 victory over Division II Saint Thomas Aquinas Monday in the first night game of the season at GoValiants.com Field, snapping Manhattanville's three-game losing streak.

In a wild second half, Grimes helped the Valiants come back from 10-8 down after surrendering five unanswered goals over just 3:37 early in the period. Up 8-5 after two quick second half goals, the Valiants found themselves down two with 19:54 left but responded with back-to-back goals from Cory Alcorn (Orangeville, Ontario) to tie the game at 10.

Grayce Cunzio (Saugerties, N.Y.) surged Manhattanville in front with 10:07 to go, but the Spartans responded with a Jennifer Bruen goal to tie the score with 8:26 left. That's where Grimes stepped in, taking a Kirsten Spelman (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pass and beating Kailey Brown for her team-leading 12th goal of the season.

Alcorn made it 13-11 with 6:47 left and the Valiants hung on from there, despite losing Spelman to a second yellow card with 39 seconds left and allowing a Saint Thomas Aquinas tally with 22 seconds remaining.

Manhattanville had jumped out to a quick lead, going up 3-0 in the first 5:04 of the game on goals from Alcorn, Katie Bertel (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Grimes. The Valiants remained in front the rest of the first half, going back up by three at both 5-2, on an Alcorn goal, and 6-3, on a Grimes tally. Saint Thomas Aquinas narrowed the gap to 6-5 at halftime and took the lead for the first time during their five-goal second half run.

Mary Albano (Trumbull, Conn.) made eight saves for the Valiants, who won for the first time since a season-opening 14-13 (ot) win at Western Connecticut State. Manhattanville had lost the previous three games by a combined score of 52-16.

Alcorn, in just her third game of the season after completing her year as a tri-captain on Manhattanville's nationally-ranked women's hockey team, scored five times Monday, the highest single-game output from any Valiant this year. Grimes added an assist to her three goals, while Kelly McMurray (Brewster, N.Y.) scored twice.

Kim DeLorenzo had a game-high six goals for the Spartans (1-2) who lost for first time since their opener against C.W. Post, the number one ranked team in Division II. Aime Colon had two goals and two assists and Kailey Brown stopped four shots in defeat.

The Valiants out-shot the Spartans 29-24 on the night and had seven more ground balls, 24-17, than their opponent. Both teams had high turnover numbers, 30 for Saint Thomas Aquinas and 29 for Manhattanville, and the Spartans controlled 16 of 27 draws.

The Valiants (2-3) will open the Skyline Conference season Friday night at GoValiants.com Field in a showdown against Stevens. Manhattanville tamed the Ducks twice last season, the first Valiant wins since 2001 over the league powerhouse. Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

2007-03-27