AMCC

#3 ALFRED STATE, #4 PITT-GREENSBURG ADVANCE TO MEN'S SOCCER SEMIFINALS

#3 ALFRED STATE, #4 PITT-GREENSBURG ADVANCE TO MEN'S SOCCER SEMIFINALS

The No. 3 Alfred State College Pioneers and the No. 4 Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats each earned victories on Saturday afternoon in the First Round of the AMCC Men's Soccer Championship Tournament. Alfred State defeated No. 6 Hilbert College 7-1, while Pitt-Greensburg edged out No. 5 Penn State Altoona 3-2 to advance to the AMCC semifinals on Wednesday evening.

Alfred State 7, Hilbert 1
No. 6 Hilbert struck first when Cam Murdie scored just 6:41 into the game to give the Hawks the early 1-0 lead. However, the Alfred State Pioneers came storming back, scoring seven goals in a row by five different players. Garrett Potts scored first for the Pioneers, assisted by Andres Mateos, to tie the score 1-all at the 15:02 mark. Henry Leahy struck next for Alfred State with the eventual game-winning goal, to put the Pioneers up 2-1, a lead they would never relinquish. With two more Alfred State goals in the first half from Nuri Sarbudak and Riley Warren-Nichols, the Pioneers went into halftime with a comfortable 4-1 lead. The Pioneers didn't let up in the second half, as Potts scored his second goal of the game at the 45:54 mark to make it 5-1 before Alexander Romero and Warren-Nichols each added another goal to set the final at 7-1.

With the win, Alfred State will travel to Erie, PA on Wednesday evening and take on the No. 2 Penn State Behrend Lions in the AMCC semifinals.

Pitt-Greensburg 3, Penn State Altoona 2
Penn State Altoona scored the first and the last goals of the game, but it wasn't enough, as Pitt-Greensburg scored three of their own in between to come out on top 3-2 in their first round matchup. 

Penn State Altoona drew first at the 7:33 mark, when Bailey Musselman scored his fourth goal of the season to put the Lions on top. But Pitt-Greensburg tied the score at 1-1 on a Zander Plizga goal at the 30:06 mark, and the two teams eventually went into halftime knotted at one goal apiece. The Bobcats took their first lead of the day early in the second half, when Matt Armenio's goal just four minutes into the period gave the home team a 2-1 advantage. Plizga scored what turned out to be a crucial goal for Pitt-Greensburg 10-and-a-half minutes later, when he found the back of the net for the second time by scoring on a penalty kick at 59:30 to make it 3-1. Penn State Altoona cut its deficit to one at 71:42, when Galieti tallied his second goal of the season to trim the Pitt-Greensburg lead to 3-2. But the Bobcats held on the rest of the way to win and advance in the tournament.

With its win, Pitt-Greensburg will travel to face top seed Mount Aloysius College in a semifinal round game this Wednesday, November 1.