Box Score KINGS POINT, N.Y. – The Manhattanville men's soccer team fell on the road on Wednesday evening by the score of 2-1 to the Merchant Marine Academy Mariners in Kings Point, N.Y.
 
Both the Valiants and Mariners went through the first half without a goal going up on the scoreboard, but Manhattanville did outshoot their hosts by a 7-3 margin. The Valiants were led by senior Marco Blasetti (Yonkers, N.Y./Rye Country Day) who picked up a pair of shots through the first stanza.
 
The second half started out with Merchant Marine picking up five of the first six shots of the half. On the fifth Mariner shot the deadlock was broken as Merchant Marine picked up the goal on a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box with 29:38 to go in the game.
 
After a foul by the Valiants gave Merchant Marine another free kick opportunity, the Mariners capitalized as they went up by a 2-0 score at the 78:52 point of the contest.
 
The Valiants continued to outwork their hosts with no success as they outshot the Mariners 2-1 through a stretch of three minutes towards the end of the contest. Manhattanville broke through on their last shot of the contest as senior Moshee Kelyana (Scarborough, Ontario/Brebeuf College) scored his team-leading sixth goal with 22 seconds remaining to avoid the shutout.
 
In goal freshman Steve Singson (Deer Park, N.Y./St. Anthony's) suffered the loss after allowing the pair of Mariner tallies, while making three stops. Earning the win for Merchant Marine was Stephen Fucito who needed to make only one stop, on the two shots he faced on the evening.
 
Manhattanville ended up outshooting Merchant Marine by a 15-11 differential in the game, and also took 12 corner kicks to the Mariners' one.
 
“The guys really battled and fought for every single ball, it was unfortunate to lose the game,” said Manhattanville head coach Gregg Miller after the game.
 
“If we continue to play like we did tonight as the season goes on, we should start to see some success,” Miller added. “I'm proud of the way we battled right until the final whistle and we kept pushing right up until the end of the game.”
 
Manhattanville (3-4-2) will open up Freedom Conference play this Saturday when they host the King's Monarchs at approximately 3:30 p.m. with live coverage of the game available on GoValiants.TV. Merchant Marine (6-3, 2-0 Landmark) looks to remain undefeated in conference play as they welcome in the Scranton Royals on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.