Albany, NY---The seconded seeded Gators of The Sage Colleges men's soccer team hosted the third seeded Knights of Mt. St. Mary College on Friday afternoon in the semifinals of the 2012 Skyline Conference Men's Soccer Championship. The visiting Knights tallied a 1-0 win to move into the championship game and improve to 11-7-1. Sage drops to 12-5-1.
The first half remained scoreless until about two minutes before the break when the Knight's senior forward Matt Pagano (Mahopac, NY/Mahopac) converted a direct kick off a foul for a score in the bottom left side of the goal. The goal at 43:12 put the Knights on the board with a 1-0 lead at the half. The goal was the fourth of the season for Pagano and his first game-winner of the season.
Down the stretch Sage applied pressure with a number of hard shots, but junior keeper Matt Darling (Staatsburg, NY/Franklin D. Roosevelt) made some impressive stops. He picked up the win to improve to 11-7-1 in net this season after making seven saves en route to his seventh shutout of the season.
Sag'se freshman goalkeeper TJ Zehner (Beacon, NY/Beacon) made four saves in the contest.
MSMC has advanced to the title game and will face the winner of the other semifinal contest featuring No. 1 seeded St. Joseph's College (LI) and the fourth seeded Jays of NYU-Poly currently underway this afternoon. The 2012 Skyline Conference Champion will garner the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. The tournament field will be announced on Monday, November 5.
