October 9, 2007

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. - The Manchester College men's soccer team avenged its 4-3 defeat at Bluffton University a year ago with a 4-0 shutout of the Beavers on Tuesday, October 9, 2007. Bluffton rallied from a three-goal deficit last season, but the Spartans made sure that scene did not repeat itself as they kept the Beavers off the scoreboard and used three second half goals to improve to 9-3-1 overall and 2-1-1 in the Heartland Conference. The visitors saw their record fall to 2-9-1 and 1-4 in the HCAC.

PEPO VILLALBA put the Spartans on top less than 10 minutes into the match when he knocked in his sixth goal of the season. Manchester continued to put pressure on the Beavers throughout the first half, but it was unable to up its lead despite a 12-5 advantage on shots and a 9-2 advantage on corner kicks.

Bluffton held the Spartans scoreless through the first 19 minutes of period two before Manchester blew the contest open with three scores in a 21-minute span late in the second half. CHRIS ROWE and PARKER SWANSON sandwiched their fourth goals of the season around Villalba's second tally of the match.

Sophomore LOUIS CANCASCI (Twinsburg/Twinsburg) and junior NATE FLATH(Wadsworth/Wadsworth) both fired two shots on target to lead the Beavers. Manchester took 20 shots compared to six for Bluffton. The Spartans ended the match with 11 corner kicks, eight more than the visitors. For the match, Bluffton committed 13 fouls, four more than its counterpart from Manchester.

The Beavers return to action on Saturday, October 13, when they play host to Rochester College. The match is slated to start at 3 p.m. following the Bluffton women's contest against Rochester.

-BEAVERS-