Men's Soccer | 10/8/2022 9:07:00 PM
ALBANY, NY – Visiting Nazareth scored four goals in a 3:56 span in the first half to hand Sage its first conference loss of the season, 3-1, Saturday night at the University of Albany. Cuneyt Vardar scored a goal and assisted on the other two tallies to propel the Nazareth offense.
With the win, Nazareth improves to 6-3-2 overall and 2-1-2 in conference play, while Sage drops to 5-4-2 and 3-1, respectively.
Nazareth's first goal came at the feet of Drew Decker 7:46 into the first half. Vardar played a diagonal floated ball over the defense for Decker to tuck a left footed shot into the back of the net.
Vardar secured his second assist of the day less than three minutes later, flicking a cross through his legs to a streaking Sam Smyth for the one-time goal.
Decker repayed the favor to Vardar after the Smyth goal. He crossed from the left flank, with the ball deflecting off a defender, before Vardar swooped in to clean up the garbage. Vardar leads the Empire 8 with 13 goals.
The score remained 3-1 heading into halftime.
The Gators were awarded a penalty kick under a minute into the second half, however, goalkeeper Logan Menna was up for the task, making the save. Menna made the initial save and then defender Owen Brignati cleared away the rebound before the Sage attackman was able to get a foot on it.
Patrick Larkin entered the game for Nazareth in goal in the 54th
minute.
Sage eventually got on the board in the 81st minute. The long initial free kick got passed Larkin, but was stopped from going in by the Nazareth defender. Braxton Harper was able to follow up the blocked shot for the goal.
Nazareth returns to action on Tuesday, hosting Fredonia State at 4 p.m in a non-conference matchup.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
EMPIRE 8 SOCIAL MEDIA
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