The Stony Brook Men’s Soccer team came away with a 2-1 road overtime victory over the Albany Great Danes on Saturday night, clinching an America East playoff berth for the second consecutive season.
After receiving a pass from freshman midfielder Macdara Heanue, Great Danes goalkeeper Danny Vitiello fouled junior forward Vince Erdei with a sliding tackle in the 92nd minute. Erdei took the ball, placed it on the penalty marker and calmly shot it past the keeper for the overtime victory.
While both teams were able to score in the first half, Albany was the team that struck first. After a broken down play in the 30th minute of play, Great Danes sophomore forward Nico Solabarrieta played a ball to sophomore defender Daniel Krutzen who ripped a shot past redshirt junior goalkeeper Tom McMahon to give Albany a 1-0 lead.
The Seawolves answered back just before halftime. In the 43rd minute, Vitiello made a punching clearance of a Seawolf’s cross. His punch-out, however, went right to Heanue, who was able to finish the ball on one touch while Vitiello was out of position, tying the match at 1-1.
His goal ended a 226-minute scoreless drought for the Seawolves after being shutout in their last two matchups.
Stony Brook came out aggressive in the second half, as the team took more shots than Albany and had a 4-2 shot advantage. Heanue created two goal scoring opportunities in the second half, as well. His shot in the box was corralled in by Albany’s keeper, and, in the 68th minute, he sent a cross to junior forward Akeem Morris, whose shot went wide.
With both teams still tied, the game went into overtime, where Erdei won the game for them with his penalty kick.
Stony Brook has had a very successful record against Albany in the past few years, with an 8-0-2 record in their last 10 meetings.
After earning three points against the Great Danes, the Seawolves move into third place in the America East conference rankings. UMass Lowell is in second, but the team is not playoff eligible for the season. If the Seawolves are able to win out their final two games, they would be able to clinch the second seed and a quarterfinal bye in the playoffs.
Next up, Stony Brook will travel to Binghamton for its final road game of the season on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.. On Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m., Stony Brook will host UMBC in its final game of the regular season.
