Syracuse, N.Y. – The Le Moyne College men's soccer team scored four first half goals against Daemen University in non-conference action on Saturday then cruised to a 4-1 win over the Wildcats to improve their record to 4-3-5 this season.

Freshman forward Cameron Stuart (Fulton, N.Y./G. Ray Bodley) contributed one goal and one assist during the win to increase his season tally to four goals and four assists. Stuart now leads the Dolphins in both statistical categories during his first collegiate campaign.

Graduate midfielder Alessandro Otte (Suderburg, Germany/Herzog-Ernst-Gymnasium Uelzen/Hochschule Wismar) scored his second and third goals of the season during the win, and sophomore forward Michael Sparkes (Glasgow, Scotland/St. Ninian's) put away his first goal of the 2022 campaign.

Le Moyne freshman goalkeeper Matthew Gera (Jamesville, N.Y./Jamesville-DeWitt) made his first start in goal for the Dolphins then recorded his first career win. 

"Saturday was a heartbreaking loss for us, and I think that the guys did a great job of bouncing back and playing the way that we should play. And I thought we did a really good job of keeping the ball today," said Le Moyne Head Coach Tom Bonus after the win.

The Dolphins scored the opening goal about one minute into the game when Jack Goodrich (Kelsall, England/King's School Chester) played the ball into the box from the left side for Sparkes, who headed the ball off a bounce into the left side of the goal.

Less than 30 seconds after the restart the Wildcats were passing the ball around their back line when defensive pressure from Le Moyne forward Noah Sperduto (Elmira, N.Y./Elmira) forced a Daemen turnover just outside their 18-yard box. Sperduto poked the ball to his left for Stuart, who patiently dribbled into the left side of the box and calmly placed his shot with his left foot beyond the oncoming Daemen goalkeeper and into the top left corner of the net to double Le Moyne's lead less than a minute after they took the lead.

In the 7^th minute the ball was passed back to Gera and Le Moyne's freshman goalkeeper drove the ball to the left sideline near midfielder where Stuart was checking back to the ball with a defender close on his back.

The ball bounced over both players and Stuart turned to run after it. In a full sprint Stuart touched got to the ball and took a big touch to the edge of Le Moyne's attacking third. Stuart continued his impressive run into the left side of the box while absorbing contact from the Daemen defender tailing him.

Just before Stuart played a ball across the box he was brought down from behind, and the referee awarded the Dolphins a penalty kick.

Otte took the PK for Le Moyne and he hit his shot into the bottom left corner of the goal to put the 'Phins up 3-0 with over 83 minutes left in the game.

With a little over 15 minutes remaining in the first half, a give-and-go combination between Sperduto and Stuart sent Stuart on a run towards the left side of the box. With a defender in front of him, Stuart made a quick cut to his right and ran parallel to the goal line along the top of the 18-yard box before dropping off a pass to Otte who was standing in the center of the team's attacking third. Otte set the ball up on his right foot then hit a rocket from just outside the 18-yard box that got past the diving Marcos Lerma Escobar and hit the left side of the net to give Otte his second goal of the game and put Le Moyne up 4-0.

The Wildcats capitalized on an errant pass by the Dolphins in their own defensive third with under five minutes remaining in the game, and senior midfielder Derek Bartlo hit the ball over the head of Gera and across the goal line to get Daemen in the scoring column and reduce their deficit to 4-1.

The Le Moyne College men's soccer team has four conference games remaining on their regular season schedule, and they will be back in action on Saturday when they hit the road to take on Saint Michael's College at 12:00 p.m. in NE10 action.