WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – Senior Omar Parra (Gulfport, Miss./Gulfport) recorded his third hat trick of the season to pace the Manhattanville College men's soccer team in its 5-1 victory over Wilkes University Saturday night in the final game of the 2016 season.
 
Despite the win, Manhattanville (11-7, 4-3 MAC Freedom) was eliminated from MAC Freedom Tournament contention earlier Saturday when Eastern University defeated DeSales University, 1-0.  The Valiants finish the season in a four-way tie for third place in the conference standings, but Manhattanville came up short in the tiebreaker scenarios and missed out on the opportunity to compete in the postseason for the second consecutive year.
 
Despite having been eliminated from the postseason race, the Valiants showed no lack of heart in their final game of the year, jumping all over Wilkes (3-14, 1-6 MAC Freedom) in the first half.  Parra gave Manhattanville a 1-0 lead midway through the first half, finishing off a pass from junior Christoffer Staahl (Lulea, Sweden/Kungsfaegeln).  Parra was just getting started, however, as the senior converted two penalty kick goals late in the half to give him 19 goals for the year and leading the Valiants to a 3-1 advantage at the halftime break. All three of Parra's hat tricks this season all came in the first half of games.
 
The Valiants continued their dominance in the second half, taking a 4-1 lead on the eighth goal of the season from junior Robin Schaufele (Kalix, Sweden/Kungsfaegeln) and capping off the scoring with a goal from sophomore Jack Balasiano (Fishkill, N.Y./Our Lady of Lourdes) to take down the Colonels 5-1.

Head coach Kyle Dezotell noted about the win, "I am proud of the guys for that performance after learning just hours earlier that they had been eliminated.  It is a tough pill to swallow going 4-3 and not getting in.  I am very proud of the season and the results with a very tough schedule and the most conference wins since 2012.  We will certainly be back with something to prove in 2017." 
 
Manhattanville finishes the year with 11 wins on the slate in head coach Kyle Dezotell's first season at the helm of the program, their highest win total since tallying 15 wins in 2011.  For Parra, his 19 goals rank third in program history for a single season, while his 41 points are fifth-best in a single-season and his seven game-winning goals tie for first at the school.  Schaufele also finished the year with his name in the record books, tallying 10 assists on the year putting himself in a tie for eighth place for a single season.