Plattsburgh will travel to Oneonta to play for the 2017 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) men's soccer championship title, Saturday at 1 p.m. Oneonta topped Geneseo, 3-0, at home while Plattsburgh upset top seed and host Cortland, 3-1, Wednesday in the conference semifinals.
Cortland's Dan Figarella (East Fishkill, N.Y.) scored first off an assist from Miguel Tunas (North Salem, N.Y.) at 50:51. Plattsburgh answered when Jimmy Marchena (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) served the ball to Joe Gula (New Market, MD) who headed it to the back of net from deep in the box to tie it at one. Marchena scored unassisted with just over 15 minutes left in the game to take the lead, 2-1. Alex Price (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) added to the lead and scored the final goal of the game for the Cardinals off an assist from Nicholas Laurent (New City, N.Y.).
In the other semifinal game, Oneonta's Witman Hernandez (Huntington, N.Y.) scored the only goal of the first half off an assist by Cory Santangelo (Sayville, N.Y.) Santangelo and Hernandez each scored in the second half to lift the Red Dragon's to a 3-0 win. Nicholas Giordana (East Northport, N.Y.) recorded the shutout and had four saves in the net for Oneonta.
Oneonta will be playing to win its 10th SUNYAC title while Plattsburgh is hoping to grab its ninth overall men's soccer championship and first since 2013.
Geneseo ends its season 9-8-2 overall while Cortland finishes 15-3 and will look to grab an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament ranked at the top of the East region.
