Throggs Neck, NY – In the season finale for the Maritime men’s soccer team, the Privateers just couldn’t get past the #3 seeded Valiants of Manhattanville College Saturday afternoon in their last Skyline Conference game of the 2005 season.

 

Junior forward Emmanuel Bondzie Jr. (Etobicoke, ON) led the way for the Valiants scored the game’s first goal and then later adding a goal to seal the win. His first goal was scored after an all out charge at the net saw three Valiants break through the Privateers defense and bombard the goalie with shots until one hit the back of the net.

 

After one half of play, it was 1-0 in favor of the Valiants, but that would not last long as freshman midfielder Emilio Andino (Roselle, NJ/Abraham Clark) (Roselle, NJ/Abraham Clark) netted his seventh goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1. Things seemed to be going in Maritime’s favor, however a close call in the box resulted in a penalty kick for Manhattanville. Senior forward Scott Vieira (Staten Island, NY) took the kick and scored the game winning goal with just under 20 minutes left in the game. 

 

The score does not reflect how close of a game this actually was. A majority of Manhattanville’s goals were scored towards the end of the game after the wind had already been knocked out of the Privateer’s sails. It would be Vieira’s penalty kick that stalled the Privateer’s drive and gave the Valiants their seventh conference win of the year.

 

Maritime had a solid defensive effort for most of the game, but the penalty kick shifted the momentum back towards the Manhattanville, and you could see the defense lost the edge that it had gained after Andino’s goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Matt Kavanaugh (Penfield, NY/Penfield) (Penfield, NY/Penfield) caps off his season with nine saves and gave up five tough goals. Kavanaugh has had an outstanding year in goal for the Privateers. He finishes the season with 114 saves, 21 goals against, a record of 9-4 and having been named ECAC Metro goalkeeper of the week twice, the first time in college history that a goalkeeper received this honor. 

 

Freshman goalkeeper Gerald Tellier (West Warwick, RI) had a good game in net for the Valiants stopping three shots and allowing just one goal.

 

If Maritime is not able to earn a post season bid, they will finish their year at 9-7 overall and finish fifth in the Skyline Conference with a record of 4-5. This is a huge improvement from this time a year ago when the Privateer stood at 1-14-1 overall and 0-8-1 in the Skyline. This was the best season for a Maritime men’s soccer team in nine years and they accumulated more wins than any Maritime team did all of last year.

 

Looking forward, this year’s team consisted of mainly underclassmen and a couple of upperclassmen. The senior’s who leave this team behind, leave behind a talented group of young athletes who will continue to improve and are going to take the Skyline by storm.

 

 

- MARITIME -