Marcy, NY---The Sage Colleges men's soccer team opened the 2012 campaign o n Friday night facing the Wildcats of SUNY-IT on the road. The Wildcats opened the season with a 3-1 victory on the young season.
Sage jumped out to a 1-0 lead as junior forward Scott Jarosz (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) connected on a feed from sophomore midfielder Kenny Barnes (Bay Shore, NY/Bay Shore) just 41 seconds into the action.
SUNY-IT tied the action at 57:07 as Bazo Coulibaly converted a feed from Mario Gomez. Minutes later Diego Montaleza broke the 1-1 tie with his goal at 64:51. Gomez provided an insurance goal on a feed from Montaleza one minute later.
SUNY-IT's Malick Faye recorded six saves in the outing to earn the win, while Sage's rookie TJ Zehner (Beacon, NY/Beacon) took the loss after making five saves in his collegiate debut.
The Gators, to their credit, played hard all the way through the buzzer. With only seven-minutes-and-change to play, Gator midfielder Andrew Bartoah (New Haven, CT/James HIllhouse) beat his man down the right side and fired a strong shot on goal. The look was good and the shot well-executed, but SUNYIT goalie and 2011 NEAC Player of the Year Malick Faye made an excellent leaping save to tip the ball over the crossbar.
The goal for Jarosz was the 10th of his Sage career after tallying 8 goals as a rookie on the first varsity team at Sage in 2010. He now has 21 career points.
Sage returns to action on September 1 hosting Berkeley College at 4 p.m. at the Bethlehem SoccerPlex.
