Box Score 1 MVille-Geneseo Boxscore
Haverford-Eastern Connecticut Boxscore

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Day one of the 2011 Valiant Classic did not go exactly as planned for the Manhattanville women's soccer team on Saturday afternoon, with the Valiants falling to SUNY Geneseo by a 6-1 score in game one of the annual event at GoValiants.com Field.

Manhattanville managed the first scoring opportunity of the game on Saturday, as junior Brittney Smith (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) came down the right side and fired a shot right at Geneseo starting keeper Julia Sanger just over a minute into the match. Unfortunately for the home team, that was all the offense they would be able to muster for the next 60-plus minutes, as the Knights took control of the contest soon after and never let the Valiants get anything going offensively.

Anne Beinetti started a streak of five straight Geneseo goals at the 5:19 mark, as she collected the rebound of a Corinne Santariello shot and beat Valiant freshman keeper Bridget Miranda (Binghamton, N.Y./Seton Catholic Central) to open the scoring. Santariello got one of her own just over six minutes later, as she headed a corner kick just over the Valiant goal line to double the Geneseo lead. The Knights got one more from Emily Novak before intermission to take a 3-0 lead and a 17-3 edge in shots into the break.

The second half brought no relief for the weary Valiant side, as Kelly Bergin scored twice in less than four minutes to give her team a five-goal advantage.

Manhattanville finally got on the board in the 63rd minute, as junior Sonia Occhionero (Montreal, Quebec/Kent School) raced by a pair of Geneseo defenders and slipped the ball under Sanger for her first of the season.

For the match, Geneseo held a massive 46-4 edge in total shots, and also took 11 corner kicks to just one for Manhattanville. Miranda was kept busy all match long by the Knights, making a total of 16 saves on the afternoon. That total is the most saves by a Valiant keeper in nearly four years, since Ali Bromson (Suffield, Conn./Suffield) '10 turned aside 18 Vassar shots on September 29, 2007.

In the second match of the afternoon, Haverford used a superlative second-half strike from Meg Boyer to defeat NSCAA #10 Eastern Connecticut State, 2-1. Hannah Davis also scored for the Fords, who posted a 15-4 edge in total shots and overcame a first-half own goal to best the nationally-ranked Warriors.

Manhattanville (0-4) will look to rebound tomorrow afternoon, as the Valiants take on Haverford in game three of the Valiant Classic starting at noon. The game will be video streamed live at GoValiants.TV, and will be followed by #10 Eastern Connecticut State and Geneseo in the final game of the weekend at 2:30 p.m.