Men's Soccer Team Goes 1-1 for Weekend

The Mighty Oaks men's soccer team went 1-1 over the weekend of Sept. 11.

In the first game, the team faced the Wildcats of Cazenovia College at Christakos Field. ESF found itself in an early 1-0 hole after Cazenovia capitalized on a penalty kick at the 8-minute mark after an inadvertent hand ball in the box by sophomore Chris Schiavone. The Mighty Oaks fought back hard and controlled possession for most of the first half but still found themselves down 1-0 at halftime.

At the 57th minute in the second half, ESF equalized the score when junior Owen Hennigan headed the ball past Cazenovia's keeper after a beautiful cross by junior Jorge Guarin. The rest of the second half was tense, with each team jockeying for possession of the ball. Guarin and senior Rob Hamm had close chances to score but couldn't get the ball into the net. Cazenovia took the lead with six minutes remaining after converting a goal on a cross. ESF fought hard until the end but, despite outshooting Cazenovia 11-4 in the second half, fell 2-1.

The following day the team headed to Binghamton to faced Webb Institute in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game. The Mighty Oaks got on the board quickly when senior Zack Reda knocked in a goal early in the match. Just a few minutes later, senior Rob Hamm followed with another goal thanks to a nice assist by sophomore Chris Schiavone, putting ESF up 2-0 early in the game. The Mighty Oaks never looked back, dominating Webb Institute and ending the game with the final score of 9-0.

Other Mighty Oak goals scorers were senior Wyatt Wesner (one goal), junior Joe Marino (two goals), Schiavone (two goals), sophomore Nicholas Schiera (one goal) and sophomore Christopher Lawrence (one goal). Sophomore goalkeeper Cameron Schiavone finished the game with his second shutout of the year.

The men's soccer team improves to 2-0 in HVIAC conference play and 2-2 overall. They will play again Sept 19 at SUNY Delhi.