Albany, NY- Sage's men's soccer team hosted the Soaring Eagles of Elmira College on Friday night in the regular-season finale for both teams. A spot in the 2017 Empire 8 playoffs on the line for the winner and by night's end, Sage emerged as the 1-0 victor. With the win, Sage is now 9-5-2 overall and 4-2-1 in the Empire 8. Elmira's season ends with a 4-11-2 record overall and a 2-4-1 record in the league.
Sage jumped to an early 1-0 lead as junior James Lagunas (Passaic, NJ/Passaic County Tech Institute) scored his first goal of the season at 2:51 to give the Gators a quick lead on a free kick just outside the box. The goal was the first of the season for the Sage defender.
Elmira had a chance in the final minutes of play as sophomore Cameron Sanderson (Aberdeen, Scotland) fired a hard shot that ricocheted off the cross bar and almost went in the net before a Sage defender cleared the ball.
Sage's junior keeper Michael Chiaravalloti's (Torrington, CT/Oliver Wolcott) picked up three saves in the match to earn the win and has helped the Gators as they have six shutouts this fall. Elmira's rookie keeper Jacob Mattice (Canton, NY/Hugh C. Williams) took the loss after making two saves in the contest.
Next up for the Gators, they have earned a spot in the 2017 Empire 8 Men's Soccer tournament which will be held at Stevens Institute of Technology with game times, dates and seeds to be announced on Saturday following the completion of the regular-season contests on Saturday.Sage, which started men's soccer in the fall of 2010 has now earned post-season appearances in all eight seasons with this year's Empire 8 berth.
