Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (October 10, 2008) – In an intense and evenly matched Liberty League game, the Vassar College men's soccer team protected its home turf with a 2-1 comeback victory over Clarkson University Friday afternoon at Gordon Field. Senior Jon Hootnick (Marblehead, MA/Marblehead) scored the go-ahead goal for Vassar early in the second half off an assist from Matt Belli (Poughkeepsie, NY/Arlington).

The Brewers picked up their first league win of the year, and improve to 6-4 (1-2). Clarkson drops to 5-6-1 (0-4-0) with the loss. Vassar is back in action Saturday afternoon with a 2:00 game against St. Lawrence.

With 39:11 to play in the second half, Belli sent a ball over the Clarkson defense to a streaking Alex Fruend (Chicago, IL/Francis W. Parker), but Clarkson goalie Mike St. Croix (Watertown, NY/Immaculate Heart) came out sliding to stop Freund's shot. Less than two minutes later, on a nearly identical play, Hootnick was the beneficiary of Belli's pass and put in the go-ahead goal for Vassar. Belli's through-ball left Hootnick with just the goalie to beat. St. Croix came out again and deflected the shot, but not enough to change its path into the goal for Hootnick's sixth of the season.

Twenty minutes into the first half, Vassar had a string of scoring chances but was unable to connect. Ben Scaglione (Elizabethtown, NY/Elizabethtown Lewis) fired a shot that was punched out by St. Croix. Hootnick then headed the ball out of the air, but his try was knocked off the crossbar by St. Croix. Freund rebounded with his own header, but his shot also hit the post before the ball was knocked out of bounds by a Clarkson defender.

Clarkson got on the board first with 18:09 to play in the first half when Nate Hazen's (Dalton, MA/Wahconah Regional) corner kick bounced through the box to the far side of the goal. Clarkson's leading scorer Scott Desmond (Enfield, CT/Enfield) stood waiting on the far side, and stuck a left footed shot into the top right corner for his sixth goal of the year.

With 2:19 to play in the first half, Brian Bianchetti (Tustin, CA/Foothill) evened the score at 1-1 with his seventh goal of the season. After settling a ball in the middle of the field about 40 yards out, Bianchetti sent a laser shot out of St. Croix's reach and into the top left corner of the net. Bianchetti led Vassar with six shots, two on goal.

Vassar took 21 shots on the day, putting six on goal. Clarkson took 12 shots and had three on goal. Between the two teams, there were 31 fouls and 4 yellow cards (two to each team) given out.