JENKINTOWN, Pa. - Despite a strong defensive effort, the Northampton men's soccer team fell to defending EPAC champion Manor College, 2-0, on Thursday afternoon at Reeves Field in their season opener.

The Blue Jays opened the scoring early as Bill Jarwee interecepted a back pass off the opening kick-off and found the back of the net under 30 seconds into the contest.

Manor held a 1-0 lead for the next 70 minutes before they scored an insurance goal off a long throw-in, as Miguel Rendon beat Northampton goalkeeper Ronnie Mendizabal to make the score 2-0.

"Overall, I'm pleased with our effort," remarked second year head coach Joe Heitczman, "we made a couple mistakes that cost us, but I felt like for the majority of the game we competed evenly with Manor ... we just need to limit our mistakes."

Northampton, now 0-1 overall and 0-1 in EPAC play, returns to action on Saturday when they host Delaware County Community College at noon.