Albany, NY---The Sage Colleges' men's soccer team earned the No. 3 seed in the 2017 Empire 8 Tournament and will open play in their quest for the 2017 Championship and the league's automatic bid on Friday, November 3.
Follow all the action with the Empire 8 Tournament Page Link
Stevens Institute of Technology earned the top seed and will host the four-team tournament on Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4 in Hoboken, NJ. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens and children under 12 are free.
Sage (9-5-2, 4-2-1 Empire) will face #2 seeded Nazareth College (10-5-1, 5-2 Empire 8) on Friday at 4 p.m. and top seeded Stevens (9-6-2, 5-1-1 Empire 8) will face #4 seeded St. John Fisher College (8-5-4, 3-3-1 Empire 8) in a 7 p.m. match-up at Debaun Athletic Complex in Hoboken, NJ. The two semifinal winners will meet on Saturday, November 4 at 7 p.m. at Debaun Field. The winner will earn the league's automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Division III Tournament. During the regular-season, Nazareth earned a 2-0 win over Sage on September 16 in the Gators' first Empire 8 conference match-up.
The Gators are enjoying their seventh season of men's soccer and have now earned post-season appearances in each of those seasons. In 2015, Sage won the Skyline Conference Championship and earned the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance.
Under the direction of second year head coach Keith Simons, the 2016 Gators went 7-8-5 and finshed the campaign as the runner-up in the Skyline Conference Tournament.
Leading the way this fall is junior forward River Seybolt (Selden, NY/Longwood) as he has a team-best 31 points on 14 goals with three assists. Sage's all-time goal scoring and career point leader, Seybolt has 86 career points and 38 goals in his time as a Gator. He has four game-winning goals this fall as well.
Senior Derlis Zayas (White Plains, NY/White Plains) has collected 16 points on the 2017 campaign and is the second leading scorer with six goals and four assists. Rookie forward Griffin Goodmote (Broadalbin, NY/Broadalbin-Perth) is the third leading scorer this fall with seven points (3g, 1a) as the team has combined to outscore their opponents 32-22 on the fall.
Junior goalie Michael Chiaravalloti (Torrington, CT/Oliver Wolcott) has a 9-4-1 record in goal with an impressive 1.27 GAA. He has helped Sage combine for six shutouts this fall with his time in net with rookie keeper Jonathan Allen (Fort Ann, NY/Fort Ann), who has appeared in four games. Chiaravalloti has a .827 saves percentage with 91 saves on the year.
