Houghton, NY—Russell Sage College's men's soccer team made a road to trip Houghton College on Saturday afternoon in the regular-season finale for both teams. An Empire 8 contest with playoff ramifications, the Houghton Highlanders collected a 2-0 win to move to 7-11 overall and 6-2 in the Empire 8. The loss puts the Gators at 8-7-2with a 3-5 record in the league and also keeps RSC from earning a spot in the upcoming Empire 8 playoffs.
Houghton scored their first goal at the 13:01 mark as Brice Bogna scored on a feed from Andy Loomis. Leading 1-0 at the half, the Highlanders scored in the final minutes of the match as Loomis scored at 88:15 on a pass from Julius Klokr.
RSC's sophomore keeper Nolan Murphy (Baldwinsville, NY/C.W. Baker) suffered the loss and made nine saves in the contest. For the year, Murphy went 4-5-1 in net for the Gators.
The contest was the final collegiate match for several of the team's players. Included in the senior and graduate players wearing the green and white for the last time were senior midfielder Christian Vaalstuen (Lillestrom, Norway/Lambertseter Athletic), senior forward Jeaneste Pierre (Newburgh, NY/Newburgh Free Academy), graduate performer Michael Considine (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem), graduate defender Eduardo Sanchez (Greenport, NY/Greenport), and graduate player Nathan Ficht (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill).
Vaalstuen was the team's leader in points with 12 points on four goals and four assists. On his career, he added 22 career points, which ranks 13th best. He is also 13th as well with six career assists and played in 56 matches at RSC.
Pierre finishes his career ranking seventh in the program's point list with 41 points after tallying 18 goals and five assists with five career game-winning goals. He ranks fifth in goals, fifth in game-winning goals and played in 66 matches at RSC.
Ficht, who missed most of the season this year, was saluted last year as RSC's Male Athlete of the Year after his banner campaign and was a leader on defense as the Gators were the 2021 Empire 8 Spring Men's Soccer Tournament Runner-up.
Newcomers to the program this year, Considine was a starter in 15 of 16 matches played adding two assists, while Sanchez started and played in 14 games with one goal.