Box Score

Albany, NY (Nov. 5, 2014) – Trailing by as many as three goals in the first half, the Purchase College men's soccer team chipped away in Wednesday's Skyline Conference Semifinal against No. 2 Sage at Albany College of Pharmacy, turning around a huge deficit into a thrilling 5-4 double overtime victory.

Purchase will now face No. 5 St. Joseph's College-LI, which eliminated top-seeded Mount Saint Mary in the other semifinal tonight, in Saturday afternoon's league finale. That game will be hosted at Purchase Saturday as part of the Skyline's "Fall Festival."

The game-winning goal came off the foot of Purchase defender Renato Martins (JR/Sao Paulo, Brazil). The sudden death goal came at 101:05 and propelled the Panthers right into the championship. It also set off a huge celebration at midfield as the Panthers upended a stunned Gators squad.   

With the win, No. 6 seeded Purchase improves to 9-9-1 on the year, while second seeded Sage falls to 9-7-1.  

On a gusty afternoon in Albany, Sage led first as forward Alex Lanza scored on a pass from Gustavo Trinidad at 12:50. Trinidad gave the Gators a 2-0 lead when he converted a penalty kick at 17:07 after a hard foul in the box. Junior Peter Fabrykiwicz added at score 31:59, giving Sage a 3-0 lead.

For the Panthers, forward Andres Romero (SR/Port Chester, NY) gave the team their first goal of the day at 36:51.

Sage led 3-1 at the half, but the Panthers scored early into the second stanza as Dylan Hyman (SR/San Francisco, CA) connected on his first goal of the year at 47:41. Hyman, who has gone from a backup keeper to a standout field player during the playoff run, played extremely well in the semi and sparked the offense.

Shortly later, Sage stole the momentum back. Fabrykiwicz scored again for the Gators, netting his team-leading 10th goal of the year at the 51:55 mark for a 4-2 lead.

Purchase was not deterred as forward Myles Clohessy (JR/Cornwall, CT) tallied his third goal of the year on a cross from Romero at 60:50.

With the Panthers coming on strong, the team, under the direction of head coach James Bruno, saved the best for last.

Eli Wilson-Berkowitz (SR/Northampton, MA) tied the action in the waning minutes of regulation as he added his fifth goal of the year at 88:18 to send the game to the extra sessions.

After playing the first 10 minutes of overtime with each team having their chances, Martins collected the rebound and scored the game winner.  It is his second game-winning goal this fall as Purchase has posted back-to-back wins over higher seeded teams in the run for the 2014 league title.

"The team showed tons of resilence and grit," Bruno said. "They believe in themselves and it showed today. After a slow start, they came to play and pulled it out. Everyone made contributions. We played as a team and we won as a team." 
 
Sage's T.J. Zehner made a season-high 15 saves on the action, but took the loss. Purchase keeper Esteban Aguilar (JR/East Hampton, NY) collected the win in net after turning away five of the 20 shots he faced.

The 2014 Skyline Conference Championship will be held in conjunction with the Fall Festival at Purchase College on Nov. 8 with the men's championship match taking place at 1:30 p.m. The conference champion will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

-Sage Sports Information Contributed to this report