Men's Soccer News & Highlights
October 11, 2014
Eagles Edge Valiants In Defensive Battle
Eastern defender Jair Saenz set up the game's only goal with a cross into the box early in the second half.
The Eagles, now 9-2 overall this season improved to 2-0 in conference play with the Homecoming win. The win capped off three Eastern Homecoming wins all decided by a 1-0 score. Manhattanville dropped to 1-1 in the conference.
Last season, the Eagles and Valiants battled to a scoreless draw, a draw that Eagles’ head coach Mark Wagner said helped prevent them from earning an at-large bid in the 2013 NCAA tournament. This year’s game threatened to have a similar outcome after a scoreless first half. The Eagles pressured the Valiants, taking seven first half shots including a close shot by Ben Hangey that ricocheted off the crossbar in the 35th minute.
The Eagles finally broke through five minutes into the second half. On a quick restart, Eric Giovagnoli received the ball on the left wing and found center back Jair Saenz streaking unguarded all the way up into the left corner. Saenz’s cross bounced in front of the left post, intended for Andrew Ferman. The ball skipped past Ferman in front of the goal mouth, but the defender marking Ferman reached his foot out and put the ball right past his own keeper and into the back of the net.
“Normally, we teach our forwards to get into the box, so I figured if I put a ball in there maybe one of them would get there and fortunately for us, their defensive back just hit it into their goal,” Saenz said.
Saenz, a senior playing in his last homecoming game, had friends and family in the large crowd, a large crowd especially for a rainy day. “It was a great experience,” he said. “It was just awesome to get the win."
The Eagles tallied nine second shots and out-shot the Valiants 16-3 for the game. Eagles’ keeper Jamie Stratton picked up his third straight win while recording two saves.
On Tuesday, the Eagles travel to Misericordia for a 7 p.m. conference game.
No comments:
Post a Comment