Mountaineer Invitational Round-up
BENNINGTON, Vt. - Southern Vermont College hosted the inaugural Mountaineer Invitational for men's soccer with an aggressive weekend of play culminating with the Delaware Valley College Aggies winning in the championship game against the Mountaineers 2-1 Sunday on Everett Field.
The weekend long tourney was made up of Regis College (1-2) of Weston, Mass., Delaware Valley College (2-1) of Doylestown, Pa., Rivier College (0-2) of Nashua, N.H., and the Mountaineers (1-2).
Southern Vermont College 4, Regis College 1
Sophomore Tony Martinez scored two goals for the Mountaineers in the 15th minute and 64th with the first coming off assists from Nick Haggerty and Sean Moore while the second was unassisted. Newcomer Gus Chery scored on another double assist from Haggerty and Adrien Alexis in the center of the frame.
With only 20 minutes remaining in the game Regis got on the board with an unassisted goal by freshman Justin Haffermehl to make it 3-1 still in the Mountaineers favor.
Aaron Eschler got the win at goalie for SVC as he snagged four saves and only allowed one goal.
Two minutes later Alexis scored on Haggerty's third assist of the game to put the icing on the cake in game one of the Mountaineer Invitational. SVC improved to 1-1 with the win and moved on to the championship.
Delaware Valley College 4, Rivier College 3
Eric Maciag notched three goals,
including the game-winner with 22 minutes remaining to give
Delaware Valley a 4-3 victory over Rivier in the first round of the
invitational.
The win improved the Aggies to 1-1 on the year and put them in the
championship against SVC.
After a wild first half that featured six goals, Maciag scored the
lone tally of the second half as the senior took a feed from
Garrett McKissock and beat the Rivier goalkeeper. The Aggie defense
took care of the rest to preserve the win.
Maciag scored seven and 14 minutes into the contest - both off
assists from Tom Antonucci - to give Delaware Valley a 2-0 lead.
Rivier came back to tie the contest, but Antonucci broke the
deadlock in the 41st minutes as he converted a penalty kick
opportunity. However, Rivier scored with less than two minutes in
the half to tie it up once again. Maciag took care of the rest in
the second stanza for the win.
Regis College 2, Rivier College 1
In the consolation game Rivier pinned the first lead with a goal from Ford Coates on an assist from Chris Nugent in the 23rd minute of play. But the Pride did not wait long to strike as Keith Mahoney scored on a assist from John Goncalves to make it 1-1 going into the 2nd period of play.
After the half Regis took the lead for good with a goal from Josh Fidalgo on a bueatifully placed corner kick by Goncalves to make it 2-1 Regis.
Andrew LaMacchia got the win at the net for the Pride as he grabbed two saves.
Delaware Valley College 2, Southern Vermont College 1
The Mountaineers and Aggies rounded out the Mountaineer Invitational with a gritty championship game resulting in a 2-1 victory for Delaware Valley College.
After a scoreless first period SVC's Haggerty lofted a perfect cross pass to Ben Naaktgeboren who connected with a header past the Aggies keeper in the 47th minute of play to make it 1-0 in the Mountaineers favor.
Delaware Valley retaliated with two unassisted goals from Tom Antonucci in the 50th and 56th minute of play. The 2-1 lead was all the Aggies needed to hold off Southern Vermont for the win.
Eschler nabbed nine saves for SVC while Delaware Valley keeper DJ Meisinger had three saves.
