MARCY, N.Y. – It was an eventful day at Wildcat Field on Saturday.
With a nail-biting 1-0 win over the Morrisville State Mustangs, the SUNYIT Men's Soccer Team (14-1-1, 7-1 NEAC) secured the NEAC Regular Season Championship – the team's third in the past four seasons. The win also gave the Wildcats the #1 seed in the upcoming NEAC Conference Tournament, which means SUNYIT will also host the tournament to take place on November 9-10th.
By winning their 14th game of the season, the Wildcats also broke a program record for most wins in a season, breaking the mark of 13 set by the 2009 team.
The action began right away, with the Mustangs applying pressure early. Wildcat junior defender Brett Gruener (Ballston Spa, N.Y. / Ballston Spa) made a nice play in the first couple minutes to stop a Mustang breakaway, and SUNYIT goalie Malick Faye (Bronx, N.Y. / MLK) made a terrific diving save to tip a would-be goal just outside the post.
Alan Peckham got a good look for the Mustangs from the top of the eighteen less than 5-minutes in as well, but again the Mustangs were unable to capitalize.
Finally the Wildcats took the lead on another historic goal. In the 28th minute, Diego Montaleza (New York, N.Y. / MLK) notched his 11th goal of the season, breaking the program season record of 10. Montaleza – no stranger to SUNYIT records as he is already the career leader in goals, assists, and points – bent the ball up and around the Morrisville wall. The ball took one bounce before going in past the diving Morrisville keeper, giving SUNYIT a 1-0 lead.
In the second half an already physical game got even more physical. All six of the game's penalties occurred in the second half. The most critical occurred in the 59th minute, when a Morrisville red card forced the Mustangs to play man-down for the majority of the second half.
The disadvantage didn't seem to hurt the visitors as much as it should have, as the Mustangs – to their credit – managed two excellent tries late in the game. One such try involved junior Jacob Chase, who received a pass streaking down the left side of the penalty box and appeared to have a good look. SUNYIT keeper Faye came out to challenge the play, however, and Chase's shot sailed high.
Of course, the Mustangs weren't operating in a vacuum either, and a number of great defensive plays from the likes of freshmen Cameron Prime (Norwich, N.Y. / Norwich), Bryan Kilpatrick (Endicott, N.Y. / Union Endicott), Francesco Tine (Chatham, N.Y. / Chatham), and Nicholas McBride (Schenectady, N.Y. / Mohonasen) helped preserve the 1-0 win.
Prior to the game, the Wildcats honored seniors Malick Faye, Diego Montaleza, Kurreem Williams (Mt. Vernon, N.Y. / TCI), Josh Kimber (Chittenango, N.Y. / Chittenango), Joe Pfaffenberger (Chester, N.Y. / Warwick Central), and Aaron Minnamon (Palmyra, N.Y. / Palmyra-Macedon).
Said SUNYIT head coach Peterson Jerome :
"They've been great, over the last 3 years they've been I think our best senior class…you've got 5 out of 6 seniors making major contributions with the sixth guy coming in and doing his job day-in and day-out without any questions asked, you couldn't ask for a better senior group of guys to go through this run with."
"I've done very little coaching," added Jerome with a laugh, "it's great when you can do that, it says a lot about the quality of people we bring in here, and where our program is at this point."
The Wildcats will have one final game in the regular season, a home match vs. Elmira this Wednesday, October 30th. Game time is set for 6:00 pm.
