Box Score Boxscore
PURCHASE, N.Y. – Manhattanville men's soccer opened their Freedom Conference schedule on Saturday afternoon and fell to the defending conference champion DeSales Bulldogs by a score of 2-1 at GoValiants.com Field.
The Valiants started out of the gates well getting a corner kick and a pair of shots off the feet of junior Erick Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) and senior Keston George (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago/Victory Christian Academy) within the first ten minutes of the contest. After the Valiants had kicked the ball out of bounds near their bench DeSales player Tyler Nolan had a long throw in to the top of the box.
Once the throw in was received, Manhattanville graduate student goalkeeper Jason Torres (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) took a punching shot towards the ball. The ball instead found the head of Jonathan Balfour who knocked it into the goal past Torres for the 1-0 advantage 16:06 into the game.
The two sides played a defensive chess match the remainder of the first half with each side having several shots without hitting the back of the net. After 45 minutes of play the Valiants trailed by a score of 1-0 at the break.
After halftime the Valiants once again had a series of shots including three off the foot of NCAA leading goal-scorer Eros Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding), with two of his shots hitting the cross bar. After several more shot opportunities, the Valiants were awarded with a corner kick sending senior Adam Kent (London, England/Sutton Grammar) to the corner to set up a play for Manhattanville.
Off the corner at 66:52, Kent chipped it short to the near post finding the head of the 6'4” defender Emil Sjoberg (Stockholm, Sweden/Tyreso Gymnasium) who headed the ball between the lunging goalkeeper Colin Sulpizio and the post to tie the game at one. For Sjoberg it was his first goal of the season after sitting out the last few games with an injury.
After the tying marker the two sides exchanged shots with each side taking four a piece over the next 20 minutes. On the fourth shot in the string of chances for the Bulldogs, the road team found the back of the goal as Jon Mill scored his first of the season off of a corner from Sky Rimmele at the 85:23 mark.
The Valiants frantically scrambled to get three more shots off in the final 4:37 as senior Daniel Carlryd (Gothenburg, Sweden/LM Engstrom), junior Sebastian Siring (Gothenburg, Sweden/Katrinelundsgymnasiet) and Eros all had opportunities but with no success as the horn sounded to give the Bulldogs the 2-1 win.
In goal for the Valiants, Torres made three saves in the second half while suffering his second loss of the season against six wins. For DeSales, the win was collected by Sulpizio who was forced to make seven saves for the Bulldogs, he moves to 5-1-1 on the season.
Both shots and corner kicks were well in favor of the Valiants, 22-11 (8-5 on goal). The crimson and white also took 10 more corners than their opponents at an 11-1 clip.
The Valiants (8-2-0, 0-1-0 Freedom) will be back in action on Wednesday when they welcome in the Garnet of Swarthmore College at 7:00 p.m. with all the action live on GoValiants.TV and GoValiants.com. The Bulldogs (8-2-1, 1-0-0 Freedom) will return home to take on Marywood on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.
