Niagara University, NY - The 2018 Manhattan men's soccer team has set the program record for most wins in a single season for the program, earning its 11th victory of the year by dispatching Niagara 1-0 on Saturday evening in Western New York.
The 11-5 Jaspers move to 4-4 in the MAAC and remain inside the top six in the conference standings. The Purple Eagles drop to 3-12 overall and are eliminated from postseason contention at 1-6 against conference foes.
In addition to the program wins record, junior goalkeeper
Marcellin Gohier (Nantes, France / CENS) took sole possession of the program's shutouts record with his 13th-career clean sheet in less than two seasons in the Kelly Green and White.
Manhattan scored the game's only goal in the 22nd minute. Sophomore forward
Berti Fourrier (Marseille, France / IFC Marseille) flicked a 10-yard one-timer that Niagara keeper Steve Casey tapped to his left. Fifth-year senior forward
Troy Carrington (Verona, NJ / Syracuse) corralled the rebound by the right post and sent it to junior forward
Noah Amissah (London, England / Orleans Park), who converted from right in front for the 1-0 edge.
The Jaspers head into their bye as they are off for a week before hosting Senior Day against Canisius on Saturday, October 27 at 6:00 pm. The team will honor five seniors:
Eduardo Avalos,
Lucas Da Silva,
Connor Hayes,
Ryan Shields and
Jean-Baptiste Tamas-Leloup.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- The 11 wins establish a new season-high, eclipsing the 10-win benchmark set four times, most recently in 1991.
- Gohier moves past Andy Hlushko '83, who had 12 shutouts in his time in a Jasper uniform.
- It is Manhattan's sixth win this year by a score of 1-0. All four MAAC victories have been 1-0 decisions.
- The Jaspers win at Niagara for the first time since 2014. Manhattan now sports a 17-10-3 edge over the Purple Eagles, with the last six victories coming in shutout fashion.
- Amissah knocked home his third goal of the season, equalizing his season-high from a year ago. He sits tied for third on the squad with those three strikes.
- Manhattan outshot Niagara 17-7, the fourth time in conference play the Jaspers have totaled that many shots.
- All three of Manhattan's corner kicks came in the second half.
- The Jaspers did not pick up any yellow cards and have earned only one in the last three matches.
- Carrington earned his first start of 2018.
- Gohier made three stops in the effort. Of his 13 shutouts, seven have come in conference play.
- After taking a tumble inside the box, Fourrier managed to get a leg on a shot near the left post that Niagara keeper Steve Casey intercepted in the fifth minute.
- In the eighth minute, senior forward Lucas Da Silva (West Palm Beach, FL / Palm Beach Atlantic) found open space on the left side and wound up for a 20-yard shot that floated wide right.
- A nice rip from Fourrier from the middle in the 11th minute forced Casey to dive to his left to keep out of the net.
- Give-and-go passing from Amissah and Da Silva resulted in a Amissah opportunity that was shot high in the 20th minute.
- Gohier earned his first save of the evening with just over 10 minutes left until halftime, collecting a Luca Pacheco shot from just inside the box.
- Three minutes later, Niagara's Matt Kruco-Moeller walked in alone from the left side and stared down Gohier. Firing from 10 yards away, Gohier squared up and slapped it away to preserve the 1-0 advantage.
- Da Silva got open in the left corner of the 18-yard box with a minute to go, but ripped it above the crossbar.
SECOND HALF
- Four minutes out of the break, Gohier made an incredible diving save to his right in the box to stop a bounding Mackenzie Roach.
- The Purple Eagles slipped a ball from the left side of the box past Gohier, but Manhattan got a friendly spin on the ball and junior defender Angee Komano (Toulouse, France / Universitie Montpellier) cleared it out of the area in the 53rd minute.
- In the 58th minute, freshman midfielder Thomas Hitchins (Raleigh, NC / Wakefield) and Fourrier had shots blocked in a span of eight seconds.
- Manhattan registered their first corner kicks of the contest in the 69th and 70th minutes.
- In the 80th minute, junior midfielder Milan Devuyst (Ostend, Belgium / ODU) took it himself up the middle and launched a 20-yard shot right into the keeper's mitts.
- Amissah, after drawing a foul outside the box against three defenders, whipped a direct kick over the crossbar in the 84th minute.
- With a shade over minutes remaining in regulation, the Purple Eagles inserted a free kick from midfield, but Gohier skied up to catch the ball.
