MORRISVILLE, NY – The SUNYIT men's soccer team slipped past NEAC rival Morrisville State in a thrilling 4-3 victory Saturday.  It was the first of three straight conference matches for the Wildcats, who are now 4-2 overall.  Morrisville dropped to 1-1 in the NEAC and 3-3 overall.

SUNYIT struck first when freshman Diego Montaleza (New York, NY/MLK) scored a goal at 11:39 off an assist from sophomore Matthew Owusu (Brooklyn, NY/Tilden).  Morrisville would answer fourteen minutes later with a goal from Andrew Brobbey, but SUNYIT would regain the lead two minutes after that when senior Daniel Twumasi (Brooklyn, NY/James Madison) took a pass from Montaleza and blasted a strike into the far corner of the net to put the Wildcats up 2-1.  SUNYIT would give themselves a two-goal lead at the 34:36 when Wildcat freshman goalie Malick Faye (Bronx, NY/MLK) punted the ball across the field which allowed junior Nico Facey (New York, NY/George Westinghouse) to score and make it 3-1, and it would stay that way through halftime.

Erik Whitcombe put Morrisville right back in the game with an unassisted goal three minutes into the second half to make it a 3-2 ballgame, but sophomore Chris Staulters (Broadalbin, NY/Galway) answered with a goal at 54:30 off another assist from Montaleza to put SUNYIT back up by two, 4-2.  Brobbey would score his second goal of the day at 84:37 to keep Morrisville alive late in the contest, but it would not be enough and SUNYIT would hang on for the victory.

Faye made nine saves for SUNYIT, while Shane Sullivan stopped seven shots for Morrisville.

The Wildcats will be back in action this weekend when they travel to Pennsylvania for back-to-back NEAC contests.  They will first take on Penn State Abington on Saturday before squaring off against Penn State Berks on Sunday, with both matches set to begin at 3:00 pm.