PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Maritime men's lacrosse team had yet another game with the Manhattanville Valiants go down to the wire as the two squads played their fourth consecutive game decided by two goals or less. This time around Manhattanville came out on top by an 8-7 score.
 
In 2012, Maritime fell at home to the Valiants by a 10-9 score, but bounced back a year later in Purchase as the team erased an 8-3 halftime deficit to come back for the win in 2013. The Privateers collected an overtime win last season as the "home" team at GoValiants.com Field.
 
Leading the way for the Privateers was freshman Nick Pellegrino (Melville, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East), who finished the night with five points as he collected three goals and two assists. Senior Paul Grubb (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun), sophomore Kevin Izzo (Cutchogue, N.Y./Mattituck), and freshmen Scott Martin (Westhampton Beach, N.Y./Westhampton Beach), and Julius Diaz (Freeport, N.Y./Freeport) all scored in the game as well.
 
Junior Matt Hayes (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) led the team with 13 faceoff wins on 18 attempts, while also collecting one assist. Sophomore Chris Stickney (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) also had a helper in the contest.
 
Defensively senior Jordan Rose (Levittown, N.Y./Holy Trinity), and junior Jonathan Strezenec (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) led the team with three caused turnovers apiece to lead the team. Hayes was tops in ground balls with 11, followed by Strezenec and freshman Victor Titone (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park) with five loose balls each.
 
In goal, freshman Brendan McNally (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) registered 10 saves while playing all 60 minutes between the pipes for the Privateers.
 
Manhattanville was first on the scoreboard with an even strength goal just under a minute into the contest. However, Maritime responded next with two goals as Pellegrino had his third goal of the season, before feeding Izzo with the go-ahead goal to put the Privateers ahead by a 2-1 mark. The Valiants then tied the game up at two with 2:33 left in the opening period.
 
The Privateers scored just 22 seconds later as Pellegrino took a pass from Hayes off of a faceoff win to give Maritime a 3-2 lead to finish off the opening stanza.
 
The Valiants opened the second quarter by capitalizing on two man-up scenarios as Manhattanville scored twice with the man-advantage to regain a one-goal lead at 4-3. Diaz scored late in the half to send Maritime and Manhattanville tied at the halftime break at four, setting up for yet another second half battle between the two teams.
 
After the first 6:16 of the half saw neither team score, the Valiants struck with a pair of goals just 13 seconds apart becoming the first team to take a lead larger than one goal.
 
However, the lead did not last long as Martin picked up an unassisted marker to pull the Privateers back within one at 6-5. Manhattanville then scored once again, followed by another Maritime strike from Pellegrino as the rookie made the score 7-6 in favor of the home team.
 
The Valiants scored once more in the period with just 28 seconds left to take an 8-6 lead into the final 15 minutes of play.
 
In the fourth quarter, neither side was able to score as turnovers and penalties became far too abundant for the liking of either coaching staff. With 3:04 left in the game, Grubb netted his first goal of the season off of a Valiant turnover; the score pulled Maritime back within one at 8-7.
 
The Privateers had three more shots in the final minutes of the game, looking for the game-tying strike but the team was unable to find the back of the net as the Valiants escaped with the one-goal victory.
 
The final stats saw Maritime outshoot Manhattanville by a 45-27 margin, while also leading in ground balls at a 50-37 difference. The Privateers also won 13-of-18 faceoffs and cleared the ball 77% of the opportunities. Turnovers were relatively close as was success on extra-man opportunities.
 
Maritime (1-2, 0-0 Skyline) will return to the field on Friday evening at 8 p.m. when the team plays host to the Maine Maritime Mariners as part of the 2015 Maritime Cup on Reinhart Field.
 
Manhattanville (1-1, 0-0 Freedom) will play host to Curry on Saturday afternoon for a 1 p.m. start on GoValiants.com Field.