PATCHOGUE, NY – The nationally 11th-ranked Cortland men's soccer team scored a pair of goals in less than a minute late in the second half to grab a 2-0 road win at St. Joseph's of Long Island on Saturday afternoon. Cortland improves to 2-0 on the year, while St. Joseph's drops to 0-1-1.
Diego Rivera (East Meadow/Cairo-Durham) netted his third goal of the season, and second game-winning goal.
Owen Brant (Loudonville/Shaker) tallied the other goal for the Red Dragons, his first goal of the season.
Jack Pachla (Grand Island) collected his first collegiate point with an assist on the game-winning goal. Goalkeeper
Jordan Ott (Fort Worth, TX/Southwest Christian) recorded four saves for his second shutout of the year.
Dean Burchard made four saves in goal for the Golden Eagles, and Jack Pulisic led St. Joseph's with two shots on target.
St. Joseph's recorded the first shot on goal in the seventh minute, a shot by Devin Seara that was stopped by Ott in the center of the goal. The Golden Eagles followed with two more shots on goal by Pulisic over the next 15 minutes that were both stopped by Ott.
Cortland recorded its lone shot on goal in the first half with the final action, as a header by
Sam LaMendola (Buffalo/Williamsville South) was collected by Burchard to keep the game scoreless into halftime.
The Golden Eagles had their final shot on goal of the game in the 48th minute, when Ott made a save on Christopher Bojorque, and the Cortland defense allowed just one shot, which was off target, for the remainder of the game.
Cortland had an excellent opportunity to open the scoring in the 68th minute, but
Dylan Pederson (Surrey, England/Reigate) headed a shot off of the crossbar from a corner kick cross from Pachla.
Cortland took the lead from a corner kick in the 80th minute, with Rivera redirecting Pachla's left-footed cross with a header into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
Almost immediately after the restart, the Red Dragons doubled their lead. An initial shot was stopped from a strong play from Burchard to come out of his goal, but the rebound bounced out to Brant, who rifled a shot into the goal and then completed a backflip for a celebration at the corner flag.
Cortland had two more shot attempts over the remainder of the contest, while the Red Dragons did not allow a shot by St. Joseph's in the closing minutes, to secure the victory.
