Lexington, VA (September 24, 2003)- The VMI men's soccer team (2-6) took advantage of an inadvertent goal, a direct kick goal and a penalty kick goal to score three times in the first-half and eventually cruise to a 4-1 victory over Manhattan College (1-6) Wednesday afternoon at Patchin Filed.
With just a shade over ten-minutes into the game, freshman Charles Nweke ricocheted a shot off Jasper goalkeeper Collin Leaver (Encinitas, CA) which then bounced off a Manhattan defender into the net for the game's first goal.
The Jaspers evened things up 11-minutes later when freshman Barry Tulloch (Bishop Briggs, Scotland) scored his first collegiate goal off an assist from senior Antonio Treglia (Brookville, NY) to make the scored 1-1.
With less than five minutes remaining in the first-half, the Keydets capitalized on two big Jasper fouls.
VMI executed a perfect fake on a direct kick when Nweke pretended to take the kick only to have senior Ross Davis skillfully place the shot just out of the reach of Leaver to put VMI up for good, 2-1.
Minutes later VMI increased its lead to 3-1 when Nweke drilled home a penalty kick.
As time ran out in the second-half, Nweke added another goal with an assist from freshman Rory Page.
Leaver made 13 saves in net for the Manhattan, while Thomas Upton made six saves for VMI.
The Jaspers are back in action on Friday, October 3, when they open up MAAC play at Fairfield. The match is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.