The Misericordia University men's soccer team dropped a heartbreaking 1-0 overtime decision at Freedom-rival Manhattanville in their regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon.
 
“This was a tough one to lose,” said MU head coach Chuck Edkins. “I thought that we played well defensively and did a good job of following our game plan, but we didn't leave with the result that we wanted.”
 
The two teams played evenly throughout the first half, with Manhattanville holding the edge in total shots and Misericordia holding the edge in corners. However, neither team could find the back of the net, and the game remained scoreless at halftime.
 
The match continued to be a back-and-forth defensive battle throughout the first part of the second half. The turning point of the match occurred in the 75^th minute, when a questionable red card issued to TJ Schaefer caused the Cougars to have to play the remainder of the game a man down.
 
The Cougars held strong for the remainder of regulation, making several key defensive stands to force the overtime. MU continued to battle in the extra period, but the Valiants took advantage of their third corner kick of the overtime, as Marco Blasetti headed a ball past Billy Sopko to give the Valiants the win.
 
“It was disappointing for us to lose the way that we did,” said Edkins. “We didn't believe that the play warranted a red card, and playing a man down certainly impacted the dynamic of the rest of the game.”
 
With the loss, the Cougars will be the #2-seed in the upcoming Freedom Conference tournament. They will host #3-seed King's in a semifinal contest on Tuesday at 7:00 PM, while top-seeded Manhattanville will host #4-seed FDU-Florham in the other semifinal. The winners of those two contests will meet at the higher remaining seed for the Championship match on Saturday.
 
“We can't worry or fret about it now,” said Edkins. “We just have to go out and play. We host King's on Tuesday, and we need to put this behind us and play the game we are capable of playing.”