BOX SCORE
RIVERDALE, N.Y. -- A bullet of a goal with 21 seconds left in the first half by senior Sean Morin and two second-half tallies from sophomore Thomas Bandov propelled the Manhattan College men's soccer team to a 4-2 win over Howard University Saturday evening at Gaelic Park.
After dominating the first half, the Jaspers couldn't find the net despite a 9-2 edge in shots, but with time winding down, Morin took a ball down and struck a swerving, knuckling shot from 35 yards out past the Howard keeper to give Manhattan a 1-0 lead going into the locker room at halftime;
The Jaspers then came out of the locker and doubled the lead 1:20 into the second half when Bandov took on the Howard defender down the left hand side and drilled a fine unassisted goal.
However, at the 54:22 mark, Howard's Rotimi Iziduh took a pass from Guilherme Fonseca to make the score 2-1, but then Bandov struck again, scoring his team-leading fifth goal of year, heading in a corner kick by junior Nicholas Patrikis. It was Patrikis' team-leading fourth assist of the season.
With 10 minutes to go in the match, Howard's Iziduh took advantage of miscommunication between the Jasper defenders and goalkeeper Randall Brobson and tapped in a goal off a rebounded shot taken by Terrei Alleyne.
But, just 28 second later, freshman Anthony Florez scored his first collegiate goal, making a great run into the box and taking a perfect long-ball service from sophomore McCormick to clinch the game.
“I thought we came out with a lot of spirit tonight and did a lot of very good things in the first half, but just couldn't seem to score until Sean (Morin) blasted that great goal,” said Manhattan Coach Michael Swanwick. “That gave us life going into the second half and Thomas (Bandov) got us off on the right foot right away with that great goal. From there, we let them back in the game a bit, but also maintained confidence we were going to win the game.”
The Jaspers, who improved their record to 2-6 on the season, out shot the Howard Bison 19-8. Brobson, a sophomore, had three saves in goal, one of them a great stop early in the game to keep the game tied at 0-0.
Manhattan returns to Gaelic Park Tuesday when it takes on Adelphi in a 7 p.m. start.
