Box Score

SCHENECTADY, NY (October 24, 2010) -- In a must-win game for the Vassar College men's soccer team to keep its playoff hopes on life support, the Brewers came up just short of a dramatic comeback in a 5-4 loss to Union on Sunday afternoon.

The Brewers (8-6-1, 1-4-1 Liberty) are now mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and end the season on the road against fourth place RPI this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The second place Dutchmen (9-5-2, 4-1-1 Liberty) close out the regular season on the road against Skidmore on Saturday at 2:30 pm. Union can finish anywhere from No. 2 to No. 4 in the Liberty League as St. Lawrence has clinched the No. 1 seed.

Down 4-1, the the Brewers played with resolve and scored two unanswered goals to cut the lead to one at 4-3. Junior Ross Macklin scored on a penalty kick in the 66th minute and sophomore Zander Mrlik added a goal in the 74th minute. The Dutchmen would cling to the one goal lead until the 87th minute when Union's Craig Santangelo nailed a penalty kick to provide a two-goal cushion for Union. This insurance proved critical as Vassar freshman Adrien Demelier scored his second goal in as many games to shave the lead to one goal at 5-4 with less than a minute to play. Time ran out for the Brewers and Union won the high-scoring affair.

Union started the game on fire and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first 26 minutes of the first half. Craig Santangelo hit a shot off the post and Marc Zeyak put away the rebound at 6:09 to put the Dutchmen on the board. Santangelo scored at 24:57 for a 2-0 lead. Zeyak scored his second goal of the game a minute later to for a 3-0 Union lead. Vassar chipped away at the deficit with an unassisted goal from sophomore Eric Geisse to make it 3-1 at halftime.

Zeyak completed the hat trick in the 51st minute to extend the Union lead to 4-1.

Adam Margulies had four saves in goal for Union. Freshman Ryan Grimme had two saves for Vassar in 54:16 and was replaced by classmate Alex Egan who had three saves in 35:44 of playing time.