Second-Half Spurt Lifts Manhattan To Rousing Win

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Riverdale, NY - Fueled by three second-half scores, Manhattan posted a dominating 4-1 win over Iona in MAAC action at Gaelic Park.

Junior Arianna Montefusco (Levittown, NY / General Douglas MacArthur) notched a goal and an assist to highlighted the Jaspers' highest scoring output since a 6-0 victory against the Gaels in the quarterfinals of the 2017 MAAC Championship.

Manhattan's offense made a winner of sophomore Kim Mains (Harriman, NY / Immaculate Heart Academy (NJ), who registered six saves over 45 minutes of action.

Iona dominated most of the first half of action, before the Jaspers opened the scoring in the 24th as Montefusco converted a penalty kick. The Jaspers were awarded the PK after Bri Floyd's (So., Flemington, NJ / Hunterdon Central) cross struck a Gael's hand.
 
The Gaels tied the match up at 1-1 in the 41st minute on Kiera Haggerty's first collegiate score.

After halftime, the rain began to fall and the Jasper offense went to work. Junior Shelby Jones (Greenville, NC / Junius H. Rose) found the back of the net off a perfect cross from classmate Tia Painilainen (Espoo, Finland / Arizona). Just 49 seconds later, junior Bri DeLeo (Harriman, NY / Monroe-Woodbury) got into the action with a strike to the far post to extend the lead out to 3-1.

Manhattan capped the scoring in the 81st minute when sophomore Eve Montgomery (Abington, MA / Whitman-Hanson Regional) chipped it in off a nifty feed from Montefusco.

With the victory, the Jaspers improve to 2-9 and 1-3 in the MAAC while Iona falls to 3-9-2 and 0-3-1 in the league.

Highlights

#JasperNation here are the Happy Highlights ?????? from tonight's win over Iona! pic.twitter.com/BLwOJre6n2

— Manhattan W. Soccer (@JaspersWSOC) October 10, 2019

Notes
* Manhattan holds an all-time record of 16-9-5 in the all-time series with Iona.

* The Jaspers are undefeated in their last six matches (5-0-1) against the Gaels, while outscoring the visitors by a 23-3 margin during that time.

* Montefusco now has a team-leading five goals, including two on penalty kicks, two assists and a team-best 12 point on the year.

* For her career, she has 16 goals, including four on penalty kicks.

* Manhattan is 9-3-1 when Montefusco finds the back of the net in her career, and 12-4-1 when she registers a point.  

* DeLeo, Montgomery and Jones all have two goals on the year.

* The back-to-back scores from Jones and DeLeo mark the second time that the Jaspers have scored twice in less than a minute this year.

* Painilainen assisted on the game-winning score, after providing the winning goal against St. Francis Brooklyn.

* Manhattan is 31-2-4 over their last 37 matches when scoring first, dating back to the 2014 season.

* Since the start of the 2012 season, the Jaspers are 30-25-7, including 18-13-6 during league play, at Gaelic Park.

Up Next
* Manhattan will play at Fairfield on Saturday, October 12 with opening kick tabbed for 2:00 pm.