Elmira, NY---The Sage Colleges men's soccer team won the 2012 Eastern College Athletic Conference Upstate Men's Soccer Division III Tournament on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 win over No. 2 seeded Elmira College. Sage finishes the 2012 season with a school-record for victories after Kyle Clancy's Gators go 14-5-1. Elmira finishes the season as the ECAC Upstate runner-up with 13-7 mark.
Tournament Held at Elmira College
November 10
#1 Sage def. # 4 Cazenovia, 2-0
#2 Elmira def. #4 SUNY-Canton, 3-1
November 11
#1 Sage def. # 2 Elmira, Championship Game, 1-0
As he did so many times this fall, junior forward Scott Jarosz (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) connected on the team's game-winning goal as he team up shortly into the second half. Jarosz's tally came at 49:24 and broke a 0-0 tie. The goal would be the lone tally of the match and proved to be all the Gators would need to finish their record-breaking season with the first ECAC Championship for a Sage men's varsity program.
He caps his personal-best campaign as he rewrote almost every Sage offensive record in 2012. He netted 22 goals and 44 points this fall, while tallying five game-winning goals. Overall on his career, he has elevated his resume to include 31 goals and 63 career points, while recently also garnering honors as a 2012 Skyline Conference All-Star First Team honoree and a 2012 Capital One CoSIDA Men's Soccer Academic All-District Team member. He was cited as the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament.
In goal for the Gators, freshman TJ Zehner (Beacon, NY/Beacon) had four saves en route to his seventh shutout of the season. He went 12-4-1 in goal for Sage in his first collegiate season. He led the program with his 0.78 GAA and an .851 saves percentage in 18 games played.
Sunday's contest was a re-match of a regular-season match-up on October 7 at Elmira. In that game, Sage came from behind to record a 2-1 win as Jarosz netted both goals for the Gators in the action.
For the tournament Jarosz tallied all three of the team's goals, while Zehner was perfect with two shutouts wins for Sage.
For head coach Kyle Clancy, the 2012 tournament championship title is a first for the program, which appeared in the ECAC's a year ago, but did not advance to the finals. The 2012 Gators have set new high-water marks for most wins in a season (14), while also making the squad's third straight post-season appearance as well. Prior to the tournament, the Gators were ranked No. 36 in scoring offense with a 2.59 goals per game average, while ranking 45th with their 44 goals this fall. In addition, the team is 51st in total points with 123, while ranking 56th in win percentage (.735). They finish the season with an impressive 47 goals, 31 assists and 125 points, while limiting the opposition to 17 goals and blanking their opponents in nine of 20 contests in 2012.
