Cards salvage weekend trip with win

The Plattsburgh State men’s soccer team was able to bounce back from a loss Friday to come away with a victory over Oswego, 2-0, Saturday afternoon.

PSUC (11-1-0, 2-1-0) started things off quickly as midfielder Matt Hamilton was able to capitalize on a free kick and put one by Oswego goalkeeper Pat Breen to go ahead 1-0 in the 15^th minute of the first half. The goal marked Hamilton’s fifth of the season.

The score would remain 1-0 for the rest of the first half, but the Cardinals came out of the half looking to strike again. In the 55^th minute, forward Jarred Antonucci was able to drill a hard ball that went through the goalkeeper’s hands to make the score 2-0.

From there, the Cards never looked back and they were able to come away with their second SUNYAC victory to move to fifth in the conference standings, while Oswego (1-8-1, 0-3-1) remains last in the conference.

The shutout marked PSUC goalkeeper Andy Heighington's fifth of the season and the 32nd of his career, which gives him PSUC's all-time shutout record.

PSUC will have a week off before it hits the field again against conference foe New Paltz (5-5-1, 1-3-0) at home, Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. 

Cortland 4, PSUC 3 (OT)

PSUC suffered its first loss of the season Friday after opening the season with 10 straight wins, as it lost in an overtime thriller to Cortland, 4-3.

PSUC got the scoring started when midfielder Mike Payne made good use of a cross from Joe Aratari and put the ball past Cortland goalkeeper Tim Beauvais from 10 yards out in the 21^st minute.

The score was 1-0 at the half, but it didn’t take long for the Red Dragons to get on the board in the second half. In the 50^th minute, Cortland’s Robby Reiser took a pass from Gabriel Morales and drilled a low shot just inside the right post past Heighington to even the score at 1-1.

Minutes later Cortland (5-4-0, 3-0) struck again when Joe Buffolino received the ball from Chris Mcbride and drilled the ball into the top left corner of the goal from 35 yards out, to put the Red Dragons ahead, 2-1, in the 54^th minute.

Cortland scored again in the 80^th minute after Ian Cusack skipped the ball past the Card defense to teammate Jordan Mastronardi, who was able to put it by Heighington to increase the lead to 3-1.

However, in the 83^rd minute, Hamilton scored off of a free kick from 30 yards to pull the score within one. Just six minutes later, Hamilton found Ethan Voltraw, who was able to head the ball in in the 89^th minute to tie the game at 3-3 and force overtime.

In overtime, Cortland was able to strike quickly when Chris Mcbride got a goal of his own in the 91^st minute off of a penalty kick, putting his team ahead, 4-3.

The score would stay that way for the remainder of the game.