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EWING – “Boys – you’re not awake!” a member of the Manhattanville College men’s soccer team yelled across the field around seven minutes into its match against The College of New Jersey.
Around eight minutes, Manhattanville was on the board with its first goal.
The College of New Jersey Lions have become accustomed to fighting in close matches so far this season. But, the Lions have struggled with coming out of these games with victories, and their match against Manhattanville on Wednesday, Oct. 4 at TCNJ’s soccer complex proved to be no different in a 2-1 loss.
“I think either team walks away from the game thinking they could have probably won, so it’s really about executing plays,” said TCNJ head coach George Nazario. “They got the two goals and we only got the one – that’s what it came down to. We had chances and so did they.”
The Lions recorded a total of six shots on the goal, while the Valiants had eight shots. Michael Kayal, freshman goalkeeper from TCNJ, had six saves against an offensively determined Manhattanville squad.
Manhattanville’s first goal was scored by sophomore midfielder Cristian Araujo, as he took a long pass from Jon Kyriakidis that coasted between the Lions’ defenders.
The rest of the first half was played evenly on both sides of the field, with each team respectively taking six shots without another goal being scored.
“At times we were able to pick Manhattanville off pretty easily, and at times they were able to break our formation,” said Nazario. “There are mental mistakes made in soccer at the Division III level, and it’s just a matter of whether the mental mistakes end up penalizing you.”
Coming into the second half, Nazario placed emphasis on the team keeping the ball wide, which worked to create more opportunities for success. Still, through close competition, the Valiants posted their second goal of the game in the 65th minute. Freshman midfielder Pablo Bravo Olle scored off of a quick pass back from Araujo.
“Manhattanville is a possession oriented team, especially in the middle with the triangle that they had,” said Nazario. “We tried to basically mimic the system at practice to prepare.”
The Lions were not going down without a fight. In the 80th minute of the game, midfielder Nick Sample made a quick move past a defender to find midfielder Sam Monaco inside the box. Monaco scored the Lions’ only goal of the game with a shot that ricocheted off the top of the goal.
Even with the excitement generated from this late game goal, the Lions were incapable of tying up the game with 10 minutes remaining.
The Lions leave Wednesday’s game with a record of 4-6-2 overall and 0-2-2 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC). The win brings Manhattanville’s record to 6-5 overall, and 1-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom Division.
“All the games wind up being the same, pretty tight affairs,” said Nazario of the Lions’ continued presence in close matches. “I don’t think that part is going to change – we are going to be in one goal games for the most part.”
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