Senior Steve Liebezeit recorded his third hat trick of the season Friday night against Manhattanville.

HOBOKEN, NJ – Senior Steve Liebezeit (Pompton Lakes, NJ) recorded his third hat trick of the season to lead the Stevens Institute of Technology men’s soccer team to a 6-0 victory over Manhattanville in Skyline Conference action Friday night on Senior Night at DeBaun Field. The win marked the Ducks’ seventh straight and 24th straight in Skyline Conference games, improving them to 9-3-2 overall and 6-0 in the league. Manhattanville falls to 6-6-1 overall and 4-2 in the conference. The Ducks are now only three points behind conference leader U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in the standings, with three conference games remaining on their schedule. U.S. Merchant Marine Academy has just one Skyline Conference match remaining on Saturday against Centenary.    

Liebezeit put Stevens up, 1-0, in the 33rd minute, heading in sophomore Ryan Wilkison’s (Harrisburg, PA) corner kick. The senior registered his second goal of the match nearly six minutes later, taking a pass from sophomore Craig Moquin (Breinigsville, PA) and rocketing a low shot from right in front of the goal to give Stevens a 2-0 advantage heading into halftime.

Stevens capitalized on another corner kick opportunity in the 47th minute as Wilkison found sophomore Mike Kaiser (Roy, UT), who headed in the score for the first of his two goals on the night.

Junior Chris McGreevy (Rochester Hills, MI) extended his scoring streak to five games with a goal in the 55th minute off a pass from Liebezeit.   

McGreevy nearly added a second goal two minutes later, but Manhattanville goalie Francesco Notaristefano made a nice diving save, deflecting the ball. However, an alert Kaiser collected the loose ball in front of the goal and punched in the score to give Stevens a 5-0 lead.

The Ducks’ scored their final goal of the contest in similar fashion as freshman Erick Muse (Candia, NH) sent a shot which deflected off the hands of Notaristefano and Liebezeit corralled the loose ball and put home his third score of the match in the 76th minute.      

Friday marked Liebezeit’s third hat trick of the season, also achieving the feat in victories over FDU-Florham on Sept. 17 and Old Westbury on Oct. 1. He leads the team in scoring with 32 points on 15 goals and two assists this season.

Stevens nearly added two more goals early in the match, however senior Chris Barsky’s (Holland, PA) shot bounced off the cross bar and junior Nick Gkionis’ (Jackson, NJ) shot deflected off the far post and was saved.

Stevens continued to control possession against a Skyline Conference opponent on Friday, recording a 27-2 advantage in shots and a 10-0 edge in corner kicks. The Ducks have outscored their opponents 46-3 and outshot them 210-18 in their six league matches.

Junior Chris Celentano (Newton, NJ) started the game in goal, recording one save. He was relieved by sophomore Corey Connelly (Louisville, KY) for the final 16 minutes. Connelly was not tested. Notaristefano had six saves for the Valiants. 

Liebezeit was one of seven seniors, including Barsky, Brian Marks (Yardley, PA), Tom Ficchi (Staten Island, NY), Spencer Cunningham (Tucson, AZ), Jim Peters (Nanuet, NY) and Collin Clatanoff (Phoenix, AZ) honored in a ceremony prior to Friday’s match.

The Ducks return to action at DeBaun Field in Hoboken, NJ, on Sunday against Mount Saint Mary College at 1 p.m.