TORIN O’BRIEN
Special to The Leader
The Blue Devils men’s soccer team improved to 7-1-2 following another double overtime draw against conference rival, Buffalo State after beating the Cazenovia Wildcats last Wednesday 2-1.
Fredonia got started early against the Bengals. In the 18th minute of play, Vinny Chimento was able to cross a goal into the Buffalo State box right in front of the keeper. Off Chimento’s pass, Aaron Hayes, a freshman out of Hamburg, was able to head the ball into the net to break the tie.
Through more solid work from Sammy Torrelli, the score stayed notched at 1-0 for most of the game.
The sophomore ended with eight saves and made a few big ones throughout the day to help Fredonia escape Saturday with the tie.
In the 77th minute, however, Torrelli was beaten for the only time of the day. Coming off a Buffalo State corner kick, the Bengals’ Joe Vucic was able to cross it to Matt Wong, who was able to tie it up with 15 minutes left.
After being somewhat in control for most of the game, it’s safe to say the Devils survived Saturday’s affair. The Bengals showed some resilience at University Stadium. The intensity level from the Buffalo State squad was high in the second half, which led to the second half goal.
Like the Brockport game, the teams played through two scoreless overtimes. After both overtimes, SUNYAC rules called for a tiebreaker.
So, while the game was officially in the books as a draw, the teams had to shoot it out to determine end of the season seedings as well as playoff births. Fredonia was able to win the shootout 3-0.
They played Alfred University last night on the road and then head out to Oswego on Friday and Cortland on Saturday to continue SUNYAC play.