PURCHASE, N.Y. – The FDU-Florham men's lacrosse team played their final road contest of the 2015 campaign and came out victorious in a 9-7 win over the Manhattanville Valiants Wednesday night in Purchase, N.Y.
The Devils (8-4, 4-0 Freedom) received scoring contributions from eight different players including Jake Higgins (Bridgewater, N.J.), who was the lone Devil to score two goals in the win.
Less than three minutes into play, the Valiants (4-7, 0-3 Freedom) capitalized off of a Devils turnover by making their way down the field and scoring on a Tyler Bentrewicz shot.
It did not take long for the Devils to answer and with a man-up advantage, Daniel Minnich (Laurys Station, Pa.) had the ball and dished it off to Higgins who rifled the shot past the goalie for the Devils first score of the night. Minnich had no issues spreading the ball around the field and tallied three assists in the game.
Immediately after the Devils goal, Tony Ramos punched one in to help the Valiants retake the lead. Manhattanville went on to score two more goals in the first quarter off of the shots from Colin Morrissey and Andrew Murray.
Trailing 4-1 entering the second quarter, the Devils came roaring back and it was Higgins scoring for FDU-Florham off of an assist from David Stewart (Narbeth, Pa.). The Valiants went on to control possession of the ball until Higgins caused a turnover and the Devils sprinted down the field. With the ball in Higgins stick, he found a streaking Minnich for the goal to cut the deficit to one.
The Devils knotted the game up at 4-4 with a goal from Stewart following a Valiants turnover. However, Manhattanville was able to retake the lead when Ed Motherway found Morrissey for his second goal of the game.
In the closing minutes of the first half, Minnich had the ball once again and passed it over to Nick Ardolino (Florham Park, N.J.) who then fired the shot into the back of the net for a goal. Both teams traded goals to close out the half and the game was deadlocked at 6-6.
The Valiants struggled offensively in the entire second half as the Devils defense began to clamp down. Meanwhile, the Devils managed to add two third quarter goals off of shots from Dave Magrini (Montclair, N.J.) and Frank Reda (Hauppauge, N.Y.).
Already with a two goal advantage midway through the fourth quarter, the Devils added one more goal when Matt Melnik (Clifton, N.J.) sent the ball to the back of the net. The Valiants failed to score late in the contest until Morrissey netted his third goal of the game. However, the goal came with less than a minute left of play.
Connor Evans (Ringwood, N.J.) saw most of the action in goal for the Devils and he made four saves while only allowing three goals. For the Valiants, Zach Hoffman notched eight saves in the contest.
The Devils will be back in action on Tuesday, April 21, as they take on the Eastern University Eagles in Madison for the top spot in the Freedom Conference. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m.
