Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. – An own goal by Misericordia helped give the Manhattanville men's soccer team three points in the Freedom Conference standings as the Valiants walked away with a 2-0 victory over the Cougars on Saturday afternoon at GoValiants.com Field.

In a rematch of last year's Freedom Conference Championship, the Manhattanville defense brought the 'A' game and held the defending conference champions to four shots over 90 minutes, while the offense fired 16 shots towards the Cougars' goal. Neither team scored in the first half, as both defensive units held their ground and didn't allow many chances, resulting in no shots on goal for either team.

With 10 minutes remaining in the contest, a mental mistake cost the visiting Cougars the game and an important series in the conference head-to-head battle. Junior Keston George (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago) tried to send a cross across the goal mouth from the far end line, but a Misericordia defender deflected the cross into his own goal to give the Valiants a 1-0 lead.

With three minutes left in regulation, sophomore Erick Olazabal (Milton, Ontario) took a shot that was saved by Cougars' netminder Mason Astaneh, but the rebound came right to classmate Moshee Kelyana (Scarborough, Ontario) and he scored his first goal of the season to give the Valiants the insurance goal.

Manhattanville had a chance to take a 3-0 lead with 50 seconds remaining as Olazabal once again had a nice shot from outside the box, but a diving save by Astenah kept the score differential at two.

Astenah finished the contest with nine saves, while senior netminder Jason Torres (Harrison, N.Y.)made one save for his sixth victory and shutout of the season.

Manhattanville (6-3-1, 1-0-1 Freedom) will head to Eastern on Wednesday for a Freedom Conference match at 4 p.m. Misericordia (7-6-0, 0-2 Freedom) will also be in action on Wednesday as they host King's (Pa.) in a conference game at 7 p.m.