Box Score PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville men's soccer team opened up the home portion of their schedule with a 7-0 win over the Old Westbury Panthers on Wednesday afternoon on GoValiants.com Field. The Valiants were led by senior forward Eros Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding), who led the team with three goals including one via penalty kick.
 
Manhattanville jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute when senior Marco Blasetti (Yonkers, N.Y./Rye Country Day) battled for, and won a ball just outside the six-yard box and sent it past the Old Westbury goalkeeper Peter Sicardi to make the score 1-0. Less than five minutes later classmate Moshee Kelyana (Scarborough, Ontario/Brebeuf College) took a strong shot that ricocheted off the post before coming right back to Kelyana who pushed the ball into the goal to make it 2-0.
 
The Valiants took the 2-0 lead into halftime, while outshooting their opponents by an 11-1 margin at the break.
 
After the intermission the Valiant offense and more notably Olazabal began to take control of the game. Just over eight minutes into the period Olazabal tallied his first goal of the game after he took a rebound from off the post and sent it home for his first of the afternoon. Under two minutes later Olazabal found himself in a one on one situation with the keeper and outmaneuvered him to increase the lead to 4-0.
 
In the 69th minute Manhattanville ballooned their lead to five as Blasetti netted his second goal of the contest on the header off of a corner kick from senior Erick Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding). Just over five minutes later the Valiants got another marker as sophomore Sebastian Town (Taipei, Taiwan/Taipei American School) dribbled the ball down the right wing and sent one off of an Old Westbury defender which bounced into the goal for an own goal.
 
At the 81:05 mark of the contest the Panthers took a penalty inside the 18-yard box which allowed Manhattanville to take a penalty kick. Eros was sent to the spot and kicked the ball towards the lower left part of the goal and past Sicardi to finish up the scoring at 7-0.
 
The third goal of the game was also the 35th of his career to place him into a tie with Keston George '12 on the all-time goals list in fourth place. Eros also moved into sole possession of sixth place in terms of career points with 76 for his career with the Valiants.
 
“I was very pleased that our work rate was at a higher level than in previous couple of games,” head coach Gregg Miller said after the contest. “I'm also happy that a lot of our newer players got an opportunity to play and get some collegiate experience,” Miller said in regards to a laundry list of players making their season debuts today including: Zach Benton (Houston, Texas/Cy-Springs), Edmond Addison (Accra, Ghana/Lincoln (N.Y.)), Kyle Cassidy (Carmel, N.Y./Carmel), Dardan Jashari (Yonkers, N.Y./Saunders), Steve Singson (Deer Park, N.Y./St. Anthony's), Joe Antolino (West Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) and Dylan Rich (Tokyo, Japan/Kents Hill (Maine)).
 
“I was very pleased to see Edmond and Kyle back with the team and make it out of their first games unscathed," added Miller. "We've definitely missed their presence in the middle of the field.”
 
Earning the win in his first collegiate game was Singson, who did not register a save in over 81 minutes of action. Benton came on to finish off the contest, making one save in his brief outing. Sicardi suffered the loss despite making six saves and yielding all seven goals that Manhattanville scored.
 
“This is a good foundation to build upon, getting a clean sheet at home as we approach a very difficult run of games starting with Western New England on Saturday,” Miller said.

After today's contest the Valiants will next take the field against Western New England on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. as part of the 20th Annual Valiant Classic. Live video coverage of the game will be available on GoValiants.TV.