Senior midfielder Keston George (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago/Victory Christian Academy) scored his first two goals of the season as the Manhattanville men's soccer team pushed past Alvernia 4-2 in non-conference action on Sunday afternoon at GoValiants.com Field.
The Valiants got on the board less than 10 minutes into the game on a corner kick. Junior Erick Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) booted the kick into the middle of the box where it was flicked in on a header by George, who was guarded closely by the Alvernia defense. The goal was George's first of the season after leading the team last season with seven tallies.
Less than six minutes later Manhattanville got back on the board once again as Erick took a shot toward Alvernia's goalkeeper Ben Diller. After making the initial save, the junior netminder let the rebound get away from him where Erick's twin brother Eros Olazabal (Milton, Ontario/Bishop Reding) was there to clean up the rebound and put it in the back of the net for his sixth goal of the season.
The best opportunity of the first half for Alvernia came at the 34:29 point when EJ Logan danced around a Valiant defender as well as Manhattanville goalie Zach Benton (Houston, Texas/Cy-Springs) and had an easy chip shot to an open net, but it bounced off the side of his shoe and trickled wide of the right post.
Heading into the second half, Manhattanville kept their foot on the offensive accelerator when Erick got on the board after stealing the ball away from the Crusader defense and chipping it over the goalkeeper on the far post to give Manhattanville a 3-0 advantage.
About 10 minutes later, George added his second goal of the contest off of a free kick from the left wing. Like earlier, the keeper made the initial save but George was able to gobble up the rebound and put it behind Diller to open up the lead to four goals.
The penalty bug caught up with the Valiants at the 77:53 mark when the Valiants were called for a penalty in the box that resulted in a penalty kick for the Crusaders. In Benton's first real test of the afternoon, David McEwen blasted the ball at the lower left corner of the net which ended up behind a diving Benton as Alvernia trimmed the lead to 4-1.
Alvernia kept coming after that goal, and after a corner kick that was initially kept out by the Manhattanville defense, Alvernia midfielder Kyle Martyn collected the ball and shot toward the vacant part of the net while the defense was out of position. The ball ticked off the right post and into the net at the 84:33 point as the Crusaders cut the lead in half to 4-2.
Alvernia would get one more chance as Martyn had his last shot blocked by a Manhattanville defense that played well. Zack Weidner (Glens Falls, N.Y./Glens Falls) led the way for the defense in this contest and also collected a shot offensively.
In goal, Benton collected his second win of the year playing all 90 minutes while collecting a save along the way. Taking the loss for Alvernia was Diller, who made four saves while allowing the four Valiant goals.
Manhattanville will now get ready for the 2011 edition of the Valiant Classic, which takes place on Friday and Saturday. Friday's contest begins at 7:30 p.m. against Vassar and will be video streamed live on GoValiants.TV. Alvernia will be back in action on Wednesday when they visit Gwynedd-Mercy at 4 p.m.