Albany, NY—The Sage Colleges' men's soccer team hosted the Golden Flyers of Nazareth College on Saturday afternoon in an Empire 8 match-up, the first of the year for both clubs.  The match ended in a 0-0 double overtime tie. With Saturday's match, Sage stands at 0-4-1 and 0-0-1 in the Empire 8, while Nazareth is now 3-2-1 overall and 0-0-1 in the league.  The last time these two teams met was in the 2017 Empire 8 semifinals as the Gators posted a 3-2 overtime win to advance to the league finals.

Today's match-up was a back and forth battle as both teams had their scoring chances, but each team's goalie would come up with some impressive stops to keep the match scoreless.  To start the first overtime period, Sage's senior Liam Hayes (Rensselaer, NY/Columbia) had a break away shot, but Nazareth's junior keeper Brian Wilkin (Rochester, NY/Hilton) recorded the save. Near the end of the first OT, Nazareth's Sam Smyth (Pittsford, NY/Rush-Henrietta) had a shot which landed in the hands of Sage's senior keeper, Mike Chiaravalloti (Torrington, CT/Oliver Wolcott) at the 98:24 mark.

Headed to the second overtime stanza, after a wide shot for the Golden Flyers at 101:46, rookie Zein Mohamed (Henrietta, NY/Rush-Henrietta) fired a shot which Chiaravalloti stopped at 102:35.

Sage would push towards the goal as well as rookie Joergen Skagen (Oslo, Norway) headed the ball at 107:55, only to see the ball go to the right of the net. As time was winding down, Sage's senior River Seybolt (Selden, NY/Longwood) headed the ball at the 108:52 mark but it was stopped by Wilkin.

For the game, both teams were even in shots with 12 each, while Wilkin made seven saves and Chiaravalloti had three.