Albany, NY—Freshman forward Ben Woolingham scored at 59:54 for the eventual winning goal as St. John Fisher defeated The Sage Colleges, 1-0 in an Empire 8 Conference men's soccer game at the Albany College of Pharmacy Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals are now 1-1-1 in the Empire 8 and 3-8-1 overall. The Gators fell to 1-3 in the conference and 6-6 for the season.
Woolingham got a pass from Aaron Wilkins directly in front and shot it to the right of the diving goalkeeper for the only score of the contest. It was his first career goal for the freshman.
The statistics mirrored the close game. Both teams had nine shots for the day and the Cardinals had one more foul then the Gators, nine to eight. St. John Fisher also had one more corner, six to five.
Senior Justin Miles made five saves in the game, while sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Bourdeau (Castleton-on-Hudson, NY/Maple Hill) made one stop and the hosts had one team save.
At 23:56, the Cardinals had an excellent chance. With the keeper and a crowd tied up in front, Jeff Meyers had an open net to the right but sophomore midfielder Giddel Alvarado (Newburgh, NY/Newburgh Free Academy) came over to cover and made the stop for the Gators. At 29:37, the hosts had a shot for the lead. Junior forward Griffin Goodemote (Broadalbin, NY/Broadlabin Perth) took a shot that was stopped by Miles, who dove to his right to make the save.
The Gators had four shots in the second half and two were stopped by Miles.
Sage is at Castleton University on Wednesday, October 16 for a non-league game at 7 p.m. The Gators return home for an October 19 Empire 8 game against Utica at 5:30 p.m. St. John Fisher hosts Nazareth on October 19 for a 1 p.m. Empire 8 matchup.
