Upper Montclair, NJ - The Montclair State University men's lacrosse team downed visiting Manhattanvile (NY) College by a 13-8 score in a Knickerbocker Lacrosse Conference match tonight at MSU's Sprague Field. Montclair is now 5-3 overall this season and 3-1 in the conference, while the visiting Valiants fall to 2-4 on the year and 0-3 in league play.

Montclair, which topped Manhattanville by an 11-6 count last spring, also ended a four-game homestand that began back on March 15 with a 3-1 record.

The host Red Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes of play on a pair of goals by junior attackman SEAN PEKARSKY (Clifton, NJ/Clifton). MSU then made it 3-0 on a goal by sophomore attacker and leading scorer KEVIN GONDRES (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lawn) at 11:12 as the Red Hawks outshot the Valiants, 14-1, in the opening quarter. Sophomore midfielder Jim Frattarola (Yorktown, NY/Yorktown) got Manhattanville on the board at 2:36 of the second quarter on a man-advantage opportunity, and classmate Jim Seymour (Freeport, NY/Freeport) made it a 4-2 game after freshman JOHN DELLA PESCA (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lawn) had regained the Red Hawks' three-goal lead. Della Pesca would then score his second goal of the evening to make it 5-2 for Montclair at 8:17. Freshman midfielder BRIAN SHADIACK (Clifton, NJ/Clifton) then increased MSU's margin to 6-2 before Pekarsky tallied twice to end the first half.

Della Pesca opened the third quarter with his third goal of the night before Seymour responded exactly two minutes later for Manhattanville. KEVIN GONDRES then scored with a man advantage to put the Red Hawks into double digits, before Seymour set up classmate Scott Cohen (Mt. Kisco, NY/Greeley) at 7:44 to make it 10-4. Gondres added his third tally at 9:48 to close out the third stanza.

Cohen started the scoring in the final frame with his second score before Seymour completed his hat trick for Manhattanville under two minutes later. Cohen then scored his third goal to pull the Valiants within 11-7, before Pekarsky ended Manhattanville's three-goal string with his fifth marker. Cohen then garnered his fourth off an assist by Seymour before Della Pesca responded with his fourth score of the contest for the final margin.

Freshman RICH DOYEN (Basking Ridge, NJ/Ridge) had two assists for the Red Hawks. MSU outshot Manhattanville, 37-29, and was 1-6 with a man-advantage. Manhattanville won 17-of-23 face-offs and gained 28 -of-53 ground balls. Senior goalkeeper VINNY DEGENNARO (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lawn) finished with eight saves for the Red Hawks while senior Eric DeRosa (San Francisco, CA/Marin) made 13 stops for the Valiants.

Montclair State next visits CCNY on Saturday, April 5, at noon in a KLC contest. The Red Hawks blanked the Beavers, 20-0, last spring in Upper Montclair after posting an 11-0 shutout two years ago.