Box Score Boxscore
PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville men's soccer team won their eighth game of the year on Wednesday evening as junior forward
Eros Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) scored twice in the second half to tie the school's single-season goals record and move the Valiants past the Merchant Marine Mariners by the score of 2-1 in a matchup of regionally ranked teams at GoValiants.com Field.
With his 19th and 20th goals of the year tonight, Eros tied Scott Vieira from back in 2003 with the single-season goals mark. In addition to the season goals mark, Eros also moved up two spots into No. 7 all time on the career goals list with 25. He also continues to lead all of NCAA's three divisions in terms of individual goals and points during the 2011 season.
Manhattanville started the game with a great scoring opportunity as junior Erick Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) sent a through ball to senior Keston George (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago/Victory Christian Academy), who in turn shot the ball off the inside of the near post at the 3:44 mark of the first half.
The missed opportunity for the Valiants swung the momentum in favor of the Mariners when six minutes later Casey Desiderio kicked one that was on its way to being stopped by Jason Torres (Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) but was redirected off a Valiant defender and into the goal to give Merchant Marine a 1-0 lead.
The Valiants were unable to capitalize on their next scoring chance, when junior Sebastian Siring (Gothenburg, Sweden/Katrinelundsgymnasiet) received a through ball that Mariner goalkeeper Gary Poulin made a diving save to stop. Manhattanville outshot the Mariners 8-2 for the remainder of the half but Merchant Marine still took a 1-0 lead into the halftime break.
After the break the two teams both had opportunities with no goals to show for it, as the score remained 1-0 until Eros received a cross from his brother Erick and flicked the ball on a header past Poulin to tie the game at one apiece.
Just about 15 minutes later the Valiants took the lead as the brothers from Milton, Ontario combined again to give the Valiants the 2-1 advantage. After Erick dribbled the ball between a Mariner defender's legs he passed off to Eros, who chipped a soft line drive over the head of the Mariner keeper for his fifth game-winning goal of the year.
The Valiants needed to play keep away for the remainder of the game as Merchant Marine dialed up the pressure on the Manhattanville defense. The Mariners were able to muster three shots and two corner kicks off the Valiants but were unable to capitalize on any opportunity within the final 14:25 of the contest.
In goal for the Valiants was Torres, who made three saves and allowed just the early goal to pick up his sixth victory against one loss. For Merchant Marine the loss was credited to Poulin, making six saves and allowing the two goals.
Manhattanville took almost twice as many shots as their opponents, leading the shot category by a 19-10 margin, 9-4 in terms of shots on goal. The corner kicks were also in favor of the Valiants at 7-4.
The Valiants (8-1) will open up Freedom Conference play this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. when they host DeSales with all the action being covered on GoValiants.TV. The Mariners (6-3, 2-0) will be back in action against Scranton as they return to Landmark Conference action.
