BOX SCORE
Center Valley, PA (October 20, 2007) – The two-time defending Freedom Conference champion DeSales University men's soccer team has clinched its fifth straight trip to the Freedom Conference playoffs with a 4-1 win over Manhattanville College on a windy Saturday afternoon in Freedom Conference action.
The Bulldogs are now 7-8-2 overall and 4-0-1 in the Freedom heading into the final week of the regular season. DSU is currently first in the Freedom Conference standings but face one more big game @ King's College on Thursday, October 25th to determine its playoff seeding. A win in that game will assure the Bulldogs of home field advantage throughout the Freedom Conference playoffs.
On Saturday, the Bulldogs got on the board first as junior German Reyes (Beach Lake, PA/Honesdale) scored his eighth goal of the season leaping high in the air to head a perfectly fed pass from fellow junior Chris Ravita (Lebanon, NJ/North Hunterdon) off a free kick into the goalmouth at the 8:43 mark.
The lead stood until the 23rd minute when the Valiants (4-10-1, 1-3 Freedom) were awarded a penalty kick after a foul in the box. Kris Morrice converted the freebie and the score was tied at one heading into the break.
The second half was all Bulldogs as sophomore Dustin Sturm (North Cape May, NJ/Lower Cape May) took over on the offensive end continually out-hustling the Manhattanville defense earning three assists on all three second half goals. His first helper came at the 53:44 mark when he took on three Valiant defenders, gaining control of the ball and sending a beautiful centering pass into the box on the far post where sophomore Marc Leonard (Bondville, VT/Burr and Burton Academy) waited uncovered to volley the pass into the net.
The next goal came just five minutes later as Sturm played a diagonal pass thru the M-Ville defense to a streaking Reyes who hit the ball in stride past a charging keeper for his second of the game and the ninth of the season.
The exclamation point was scored at the 67:49 mark when Sturm took control of a corner kick feed that went thru the goalie's hands. Sturm was on the back post, gathered the ball and played a perfect pass back to the near post for senior Kyle Moore (Hockessin, DE/Salesianum) who one-timed the ball into the corner of the net for his first tally of the year.
Manhattanville enjoyed a 19-14 edge in total shots but the Bulldogs had nine of its 14 strikes on goal, while just seven of the Valiants were on goal. Senior Rusty Riedmiller (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg) made four saves in net and sophomore Keith Barry (Long Valley, NJ/West Morris Central) also collected a save in relief duty of Riedmiller.
Prior to its Freedom Conference finale on Thursday at King's, the Bulldogs will host local rival Moravian College in a non-conference game on Tuesday beginning at 3:00 pm.
