UTICA, NY – The Hartwick men's soccer team closed their season with a 1-0 loss on Friday, falling in their final game on the road to Utica. The Hawks finish their season at 6-8-2 overall and 1-6-1 in the Empire 8, while the Pioneers are now 9-6-1 on the year and 6-2-0 in conference. Utica sits second in the Empire 8 table, although whether they remain there at the end of the regular season depends on Houghton's result against Russell Sage tomorrow.
Utica's Byamungu Mugushu had the game's first shot in the eighth minute, as he raced down the left flank to chase down a ball and then attempted and failed to flick it past a charging Jackson Gilstrap (Bethlehem, PA/Bethlehem Catholic), who made the save. Sory Konate broke through for the hosts in the 17th minute. After Gian Rodriguez had his ball in blocked, he put one through for Konate on the right side of the box. Konate navigated through a pair of Hartwick defenders and then sent it to the far post for the opener.
Konate, Rodriguez, Mugushu, and the rest of the Pioneers pushed for more after the icebreaker, holding the ball in the Hartwick defensive half for the vast majority of the next 10-plus minutes, as well as sending multiple shots towards the target. The best chance may have come in the 29th minute, as Gilstrap once again charged out to stop Konate on the break. It seemed as if Utica had doubled their lead just a couple minutes after that as Michael Bernardo slipped Mugushu for the finish, but the play was flagged down as offside.
The Hawks nearly equalized in the dying minutes of the half. Peter Crawford (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) played a ball from near the right touch line across to Ryan Cooke (Merrick, NY/Bellmore JFK). Cooke slipped it past Utica goalkeeper Foti Xidias but had his effort cleared off the line by Cody Baker-Green in the 40th minute. The score would remain 1-0 at the half.
Neither team had much to say from an offensive perspective over the opening 15-plus minutes of the second half, as any potentially dangerous chances were cleared away well before the ball could even think about going over the goal line. Cooke had a try in the 65th minute that had some room in the upper portion of the net to fit in but sailed high.
Kamer Lenio had an excellent opportunity to finally double the lead in the 75th minute on a header near the right post, but popped the ball up and new Hartwick keeper Jodi Johnson (Seaford, DE/Sussex Technical) grabbed it easily. Mugushu nearly nabbed the 2-0 lead himself under a minute later as his effort to the far right post was just wide.
LJ Nuzzo slipped a through ball to Konate with about six minutes to play, and it looked like he had his second of the day as the ball hit the back of the net. Once again, though, the linesman flagged the play down as offside. There would be no last-ditch success for 'Wick, as the final buzzer sounded a few minutes later to end their season.
Cooke led the Hawks with a pair of tries on net. Gilstrap made five saves over the opening 66:07 of action. Johnson played the remainder of the 90 minutes in net, making one stop.
The Pioneers led the shot battle, 11 to 5, including 7 to 2 on target. They also had the advantage in corners, at 2 to 0.
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