PURCHASE, N.Y. – For the second time in the last three seasons, the road to the Freedom Conference Men's Soccer Championship will have to go through Purchase. The Valiant men's soccer team earned the top seed in the 2011 Freedom Conference Championship and will host at least the semifinal round of the postseason on Thursday, November 3 when the Valiants host Misericordia at GoValiants.com Field.
As the top seed, Manhattanville will host the fourth-seeded Cougars on Thursday beginning at 5 p.m. In the other semifinal contest, second-seeded DeSales will host third-seeded Eastern beginning at 2 p.m. in Center Valley, Pa. The championship game will be played on Saturday afternoon at the home of the highest remaining seed.
For those planning on attending the match, tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for students and free for children under the age of six. The Manhattanville Athletic Department, however, will pay for any Valiant student who wishes to attend the match as long as they present a valid school ID. For those who can't make it to Purchase, Manhattanville will provide live stats for the game (accessed HERE) as well as a pay-per-view video stream of the event courtesy of GoValiants.TV.
Manhattanville finished the regular season with a 4-0 victory over King's (Pa.) on Sunday afternoon in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., giving the team a program-record 15 wins against just three losses. The squad went 6-1-0 (18 points) in Freedom Conference play to earn the top seed, as DeSales managed just a scoreless tie versus FDU-Florham on Monday to finish at 5-1-1 (16 points).
The Valiants are currently ranked fifth in the Mid-Atlantic Region according to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, matching the program-high set earlier this season. Manhattanville also is seventh among teams receiving votes in the D3Soccer.com Division III National Poll with 12 votes this week, while the team also entered the week third in the all-important NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region rankings, behind only DeSales and Messiah.
Misericordia (12-2-3, 4-2-1 Freedom) enters the tournament as the fourth seed, as the Cougars have gone just 3-2-3 after starting the season off 9-0-0 and receiving a national ranking in both NSCAA and D3Soccer.com polls. The team punched its postseason ticket with a 4-0 win over Delaware Valley on Sunday in Dallas, Pa.
In the team's first meeting this year, Manhattanville handed Misericordia its first loss of the season on October 8, as junior Eros Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) and senior Emil Sjoberg (Stockholm, Sweden/Tyreso Gymnasium) scored in the first half and graduate student Jason Torres (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) needed to make just one save in goal to pick up the 2-0 win.
Manhattanville boasts one of the best scoring offenses in Division III, as the team finished the regular season ninth in total goals (58), 12th in scoring offense (3.22 goals per game) and seventh in total assists (53). All three totals led the Freedom Conference.
Manhattanville has been led offensively all season by Olazabal, who finished the regular season by shattering the program's single-season records with 26 goals and 56 points. He currently is tied for first in Division III in goals with Alexander Rouse of Medaille and sits first by himself in goals per game (1.44 gpg), while also fourth in total points and second in points per game in Division III heading into the postseason.
But Manhattanville is more than just Eros Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) – there's his twin brother Erick Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) as well. Erick has assisted on a team-leading 12 assists (including nine to Eros) to rank third on the school's single-season list, and also has scored three goals to place third on the team with 18 points. The junior is tied for sixth in Division III in both assists and assists per game heading into the postseason.
Senior Keston George (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago/Victory Christian Academy) also plays a major role in the Valiant offense, as the three-time first-team All-Freedom Conference midfielder ranks second on the team with nine goals and 23 points so far in 2011. For his career, George ranks fourth in program history with 34 goals and 88 points, while his 20 assists are eighth-best all-time at Manhattanville.
In goal for Manhattanville, Torres has been the team's primary keeper this season, leading the squad with a 13-3-0 record, a 1.02 goals against average and a .704 save percentage. The winningest goaltender in program history with 37 victories, Torres also is first all-time at the school with a 1.04 goals against average for his career.
Misericordia is led by All-Conference forward Andy Bush, who ranks 13th in Division III with 15 goals and has chipped in nine assists as well for 39 points, a total that places him in the top-10 among D-III scorers and also ranks second in school history for a single season.
Other key members of the Cougar offense include Dan Pinto, who ranks second on the team with seven goals and 20 points, as well as Eric Kishbaugh (six goals, four assists) and Matt Scott (six goals, two assists).
In goal for the Cougars, Dan Fritz has posted a 0.84 goals against average and a .708 save percentage to go with an 11-2-3 record and seven shutouts.
Manhattanville is 3-2-0 all-time versus Misericordia, including the 2-0 victory earlier this season. However in the team's one previous postseason meeting, the Cougars defeated the Valiants by a 1-0 score in the Freedom Conference Championship game on November 7, 2009 in Purchase. The Valiants hope to erase that memory and get back to the conference title game for the second time in three years on Thursday.
