PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's soccer team was running high on emotions thanks to a pregame Senior Night ceremony, and the Valiants took that momentum and put it into a 5-1 Skyline Conference victory over St. Joseph's College-Long Island at GoValiants.com Field on a rainy Tuesday night, Oct. 22.
The Valiants (9-7, 7-1 Skyline) held a brief pregame ceremony to honor its two graduating seniors,
Samira Davis (Stockholm, Sweden/Kungsholmens Gymnasium) and
Bella Beltrami (Monroe, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury), and then jumped quickly into the match against the Golden Eagles (7-7-1, 5-3 Skyline) thanks to a goal just over five minutes into the contest – a beautiful strike off the foot of junior
Ashley Pacheco (Throggs Neck, N.Y./Pelham Prep) from just outside the left part of the box. She beat the St. Joe's keeper by bending the ball into the top right corner of the net for her 12th goal of the season to make it 1-0.
Sophomore goalkeeper
Alexa Pyatsky (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City) made five stops on the night to secure her fifth victory of the season. She had two huge saves in the first 30 minutes, with one coming to keep it a 1-0 lead for the Valiants. In the 23rd minute, a cross found a wide open Christina Gagliardi of the Eagles in the right side of the box, but Pyatsky came out and played the ball strong, punching the shot attempt away. Minutes later, sophomore
Ashley Hayes (Springfield, Ore./Thurston) put Manhattanville up 2-0 in the 28th. Pacheco came streaking down the left side, made a couple moves to get around the St. Joe's defenders and sent a through ball to the far side of the net where Hayes put the ball away for her fifth of the season. Just over 50 second later, Pyatsky was tested again, this time by Abbey Curcio on the breakaway, but the Valiant keeper once again stood strong and made the one-on-one stop to preserve the two-goal lead.
The half ended at 2-0 in favor of the Crimson and White, but Gagliardi was able to score her conference-leading 20th of the season in the 47th to trim it to 2-1. The Valiants answered quickly, however, when Pyatsky received a pass back, launched the ball the length of the field and found Pacheco, who made a move and scored in to the top left of the net for her second of the game in the 48th and her 13th of the season to make it 3-1. This was also the first assist of Pyatsky's career.
In the 54th, rookie
Natalie Aracena (Bronx, N.Y./Riverdale Kingsbride Academy) was able to get a tally of her own – her 12th of the year – when sophomore
Amaya Gonzalez (Buena Park, Calif./Western) found the freshman at the top of the box. Aracena ripped a shot to the top right of the goal to make it 4-1. The game's final goal came off the foot of Gonzalez this time, in the 60th, as Hayes found her classmate open in front with a nice through ball – it was Gonzalez' 11th of the year.
Having already clinched the Skyline Tournament berth, the Valiants have just two games remaining in the regular season. They return to the pitch this Saturday night, Oct. 26, at 7:00 p.m. down the Hutchinson River Parkway in Bronxville, N.Y., for a meeting with Sarah Lawrence College. This will be the first official meeting between the two programs, as the squads' 0-0 overtime match-up last season was never played to completion. Manhattanville then closes out regular-season play at home on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 30, at 4:00 p.m. against Farmingdale State College. The Valiants hold the 8-7-2 all-time lead over the Rams, but the two have not met since 2014.
