Troy, NY – The Vassar College Men's Soccer team took to the road Wednesday night and suffered a hard fought 2-1 Liberty League loss at RPI.
Nolan Alexander (New York, NY) scored his first goal of the season and
Vasilis Ganasoulis (Glen Head, NY) finished with a career-high six saves in goal.
Vassar slips to 7-5-4 overall and 3-3-2 in Liberty League play following Wednesday's loss while RPI improves to 8-5-2 overall and 5-3-0 in conference competition.
In the Liberty League standings, Vassar has earned 11 points and currently sits in seventh place but just one point behind sixth place Clarkson and only two points shy of fifth place Ithaca heading into Saturday's regular season finale.
How It Happened
- Vassar broke through first in the game, opening a 1-0 lead on Alexander's first of the season in the 30th minute. Alexnader tallied the unassisted goal at 29:46, providing the only marker of the opening 45 minutes.
- RPI finished the first half with an 8-4 advantage in shots and a 4-2 edge in corner kicks.
- Ganasoulis held the Engineers off the board with four saves prior to the intermission.
- Coming out of halftime, RPI evened the score early in the second half on Brady Van Epps' sixth goal of the campaign. He finished off a feed from Gabe Terando at 51:38 to level the score at 1-1.
- Just over five minutes later, the Engineers found what proved to be the game winning goal.
- Julio Rodriguez potted his fifth of the season, burying a pass from Van Epps at 56:41 to give RPI the final 2-1 advantage.
- Desperate to find the tying goal, Vassar unleased seven shots following RPI's second tally, forcing keeper Colin Such to make a trio of stops over the final 24 minutes of the contest.
- Vassar finished the second half with a 10-9 advantage in attempts.
- Second half corner kicks went to the Brewers, 4-2.
- Ganasoulis made a pair of stops after halftime.
- Such finished the second stanza with four saves for the Engineers.
For The Brewers
- Alexander became the 11th different Brewer to find the back of the net in 2023 and pushed his season point total to three.
- Owen Fauth (Keene, NH) led the team with six shots, putting two on goal.
- Duncan Keker (Oakland, CA) totaled four shots or Vassar.
- Jackson Allen (Chapel Hill, NC) recorded three shots, with each attempt landing on target.
- Ganasoulis finished the game with a career-high six saves and has now made 34 stops on the season.
For The Engineers
- Van Epps moved into a tie for the team lead in goals with six and pushed his season point total to 14 with a three-point night.
- Rodriguez stands third on the team in both goals (5) and points (10) after scoring his second game winning goal of the season.
- Josh Guadiano led the team with five shots and three shots on goal.
- Such earned the win between the pipes for RPI with five saves.
Match Statistics
- RPI finished the night with a slim 17-14 advantage in overall shots, including a 9-6 edge in shots on goal.
- Corner kicks in the contest were even at six per side.
What's Next
- Vassar closes out the regular season with a visit to RIT on Saturday afternoon.
- RPI plays its final regular season game on the road at Ithaca on Saturday.
