Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE,NY (October 24, 2007) -- Vassar's men's soccer team scored three first half goals, two coming within 27 seconds of one another, to defeat cross river rival SUNY New Paltz, 3-2, Wednesday afternoon at Prentiss Field.

With the victory, Vassar improves to 7-4-3, while New Paltz falls to 3-12-2. The Brewers will conclude their regular season on Saturday, October 27 with an away game at SUNY Cortland. New Paltz has a SUNYAC play in game on Tuesday, October 30 at a site to be determined.

Last season, Vassar and New Paltz combined to score nine goals, and Wednesday's game looked like it would follow a similiar path. Four goals were scored in the first 15 minutes, but only one was tallied in the final 60 minutes.

The game-winning goal was scored by Vassar's Alex Freund (Chicago, IL/Francis Parker) at the 30th minute mark and came just 21 seconds after Vassar's Ben Fox (Dublin, NH/ConVal) had put the Brewers up 2-1, a goal in which Freund had an assist.

Freund's scoring strike from 30 yards out that came off an assist from Ben Scaglione (Elizabethtown, NY/Elizabethtown Lewis) gave the Brewers a 3-1 cushion heading into halftime. It appeared the Brewers had firm control of the game, but the Hawks closed the gap to 3-2 once the second half began.

New Paltz opened the annual meeting between the two cross rival schools, by getting an unassisted goal from Justin Thompson (Babylon, NY/Babylon) who perfectly placed his shot into the upper left panel of the Vassar goal. It came off an initial shot by Nick Lamon (Hewlett, NY/Hewlett) that rebounded back to Thompson, who had time to gather the ball and execute the score, his third of the season.

Vassar's Scaglione answered 6:20 minutes later, at 17:38. New Paltz goalie Peter Carmel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Stony Brook) had his clearing release intercepted by VC's Daniel Griffith (Camp Lejeune, NC/Camp Lejeune) who fed the ball to a streaking Scaglione on the left side. Scaglione who deposited the ball into the left corner of the New Paltz goal for a 1-1 game, notching his second goal of the season.

Vassar's Ben Fox made the score 2-1 on a perfectly placed header, off a corner kick, Fox' third such goal of the season, and at the time, his third game winning goal of the game. That honor would later go to Freund, with his third goal of the season.

New Palyz made the game interesting just 36 seconds into the second half when Lamon scored his first goal of the season off a set of crossing balls from Thompson and Allan Bronstein (Newburgh, NY/Newburgh) to close the gap at 3-2.

From that point, the game became a hard-fought battle of defenses and some close scoring opportunities, but neither team could either extend its lead (Vassar) or tie the contest (New Paltz).

Vassar goalie Jason Cetel (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill) kept New Paltz off the board with seven games, four coming in the second half. Carmel made 12 saves for New Paltz, eight in the second half, against 30 Vassar shots.

New Paltz controlled corner kicks, 9-7, but it was Vassar that was able to convert, getting the header goal from Fox.