PURCHASE, NY. – A hat-trick in the opening 16 minutes from sophomore Mohammed Nuhu all but sealed a win for No. 15 Amherst College men's soccer on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in the final game of their four-game road trip. The team took the almost four-hour bus ride to Manhattanville University to take on the Valiants, with the Mammoths returning to Massachusetts with a 7-1 victory.

Head Coach Justin Serpone said about the match, "We've been generating chances so we've felt like one of these games we were going to break out. I wasn't sure it was going to be against such a good Manhattanville team. There haven't been too many hat tricks in the 17 years since I've been here, and definitely none of those happened in seventeen minutes. Mo is an incredible player and I'm glad he made a great memory for himself and our team tonight." 
 
In addition to Nuhu's stellar outing, the unsung hero of the match was junior midfielder James Street. His performance put everyone on notice. Serpone said, "It's impossible to have watched that game and not picked out [James] Street as being one of the players of the night. He was awesome defensively. We had a good crowd of Amherst supporters there tonight and all of them were really impressed with how tenacious he was."

With the win, the Mammoths improve to 6-1-2 on the year, while Manhattanville fall to 6-5-1 this season. Amherst will look to add to their three-game win streak when they take on Little Three rival Wesleyan on Saturday, Oct. 5. They will celebrate Senior Day before their match against the Cardinals, which will begin at 2:30 pm.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
 
* The Mammoths found their scoring touch early, with Nuhu netting just 2:07 into the match. A long throw-in from Micah Valadez Bush was flicked across the face of goal by Riley Priddy to a wide-open Nuhu at the back post. All the Accra, Ghana, product had to do was slot the ball past the Valiants' keeper, and he did so easily for the 1-0 lead.
 
* Nuhu got on the scoresheet again just 12 minutes later. The play again started with a long throw, but the initial ball was headed straight up by the Valiants' defense. Priddy won the 50-50 ball and crossed it to Nuhu, who finished a two-touch volley past the goalkeeper. The sophomore completed his hat-trick just 90 seconds later off an assist from Valadez Bush with another laser from about 12 yards out to widen the lead to 3-0.

* The Mammoths got another in the 27^th minute via the boot of Adrian Trott. Amherst again exploited Manhattanville's poor defending on throw-ins in the attacking third, with the initial throw from Valadez Bush bobbled by the Valiants' keeper and landing at Trott's feet; he volleyed home for the four-goal advantage.
 
* The Valiants grabbed one back with 10 minutes to go in the first half on their first shot of the game, narrowing the home side's deficit to three, and the two sides entered halftime with the score standing at 4-1 in favor of Amherst.
 
* Amherst got a penalty kick goal from Aidan Curtis in the 51^st minute to give them a 5-1 lead before a Manhattanville red card saw the Valiants play the rest of the match with ten men.
 
* The Mammoths finished the game with two more goals. Both first-year Michael Cherico and junior Ioannis Hadjiyiannis netted in the 64^th and 84^th minutes, respectively, off assists from Oped Opoku to account for the 7-1 final score

 
BY THE NUMBERS:

* Amherst led 22-6 in shots as well as 9-2 in shots on goal, and 6-0 on corner kicks.
 
* The hat-trick was the first of Nuhu's Amherst career, and his second multi-goal game since arriving in Western Massachusetts.
 
* Junior Juan Perez and sophomore Lucas Searl both saw time in goal for the Mammoths. Perez was not called into action, while Searl made one save on the day.