The Geneseo men's soccer team advanced its record to 3-2-1 over the weekend, defeating City University of New York at York College 6-0 at home on Sept. 17 then falling 0-1 at Medaille College on Sept. 18.
Geneseo scored in the opening minutes of the match against York, setting a pace that would remain throughout the entire match. Sophomore Ryan Yurchak completed a pass from classmate Craig Schackner to give the Knights a 1-0 start just before the two-minute mark. The team found its second tally in the 26th minute as senior Colin Begy netted an unassisted goal to give Geneseo a comfortable two-goal lead going into halftime.
The Knights continued to dominate play in the second half, again scoring in the opening minutes. Senior Ian Mort fed junior Jop Smit for the team's third mark at 49 minutes, 31 seconds. Mort then scored in the 56th minute off of a feed from senior Ken DiDonna, widening the gap to 4-0. Geneseo capped the scoring spree at 6-0 with unassisted efforts by sophomore Tom Glose in the 68th minute and freshman Tyler Chauncey in the 85th minute.
Senior goalkeeper Sam Murphy posted two saves in 63 minutes of play, while junior Nick Voggel finished between the posts with one save in 27 minutes of play.
"Since we had never played [York] before, I told the team, ‘Let's come out hard and see what happens.' Our early goal set the tone for the rest of the match. We moved the ball around well and had nice combination play in the midfield," head coach Dominic Oliveri said.
The following match versus Medaille proved to be more of a challenge for the Knights. The Mavericks opened strong, controlling possession and winning a majority of the 50/50 balls. Geneseo conceded several solid attempts on goal in the first period.
"We were fortunate it was 0-0 at half," Oliveri said. "We had a slow start. We didn't come out as hard [as Saturday's match]."
The Knights quickly turned around the play in the second half, maintaining possession and controlling the ball in the midfield. The team rallied to hold a 6-3 corner kick lead and a 14-10 shot advantage over the opposition.
"We felt confident that we were going to win at that point," Oliveri said.
As the teams battled to put a mark on the board, regulation time ended scoreless. The Knights were quickly stripped of victory as Medaille put away the determining goal in the second minute of extra time. Murphy made three saves in taking the 0-1 loss.
"We knew it would be a tough road game. We were not in it emotionally," Oliveri said. "We need to work on having quicker combination play throughout the midfield. We also need to work on having more options when we have the ball in our defensive third."
The Knights open their SUNYAC season this weekend, hosting SUNY Fredonia on Sept. 23 and Buffalo State College on Sept 24.