Senior Hans Purtell (Johnson City/Johnson City) scored his seventh goal of the season today to lift the SUNY Oneonta men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory against St. John Fisher in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  The victory for the Red Dragons was the third straight year that Oneonta (15-6-1) has won its opening game of the tournament.
 
Oneonta will now play its second round game tomorrow at 1pm against the winner of the Rochester-Eastern University match.
 
Purtell's goal was set up by some solid connecting of passes starting with senior Colin Volpe (Commack/St. Anthony's), who played the ball from the right flank into the center of the field just outside the box.  From there, freshman Daniel Ioos (Wappinger Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) chipped the ball into the box where junior Cory Santangelo (Sayville/Sayville) headed the ball up.  Purtell beat a defender to the ball, settled it and sent in a shot along the ground that found the lower left corner of the goal just past the outstretched hand of Fisher keeper.
 
"We had a lot of chances today," commented Purtell.  "They (Fisher) played solid defense, but we kept pushing forward and got one late."
 
"Hans was the star man today," said coach Iain Byrne.  "He finished beautifully on his goal."
 
Oneonta controlled the pace of play and possession of the ball throughout today's match.  They held a decided advantage in shots (18-6) and corner kicks (6-0).
 
"We weathered the onslaught by Oneonta well," said St. John Fisher coach Rob Searl.  "We played stout defense in the back anchored by our keeper.  We had a couple of chances in the second half, but couldn't punch it in."
 
Oneonta nearly jumped out to a quick 1-0 in the third minute, but the Fisher keeper, Joe Catalfamo, made a diving, right-hand save.  The shot came off the head of sophomore Justin Cebollero (Commack/Commack) after he was left unmarked inside the six.  Freshman Witman Hernandez (Huntington/Walt Whitman) created the opportunity with a nice move along the end line before chipping a pass to the front of the goal.
 
Oneonta kept the pressure on and generated three more dangerous opportunities in the first half.  In the 27^th minute, sophomore Alejandro Ruiz (Brentwood/Brentwood) was alone on the right post and just pushed a crossing pass from Purtell just wide.  Senior Zachary Southworth (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) had a shot trickle off the left post in the 36^th minute and the final opportunity came in the last minute by sophomore Carlos Martinez (Brentwood/Brentwood) that just sailed over the cross bar.
 
"Credit to Fisher who worked so hard and who almost stole the game on a counter earlier in the match," said Byrne.  "Today, we could see how they won the Empire 8 championship.
 
The opportunity Byrne was speaking of came in the 70^th minute.  Fisher freshman Shea Lynch hustled after a long ball deep into Oneonta's end before being stifled by Oneonta keeper Ryan Wilson (Poughkeepsie/Arlington), who charged out to break up the play.  Wilson made three saves today in picking up his 15^th victory of the season.
 
"We had a slow start to the season, but by midseason, we had gained some rhythm and confidence that took us this far," Searl said about the Cardinals season.  "We're only losing a few players and all of our starters return, so the future looks bright."
 
When looking towards tomorrow's game Byrne concluded, "We'll know we will be up against it again tomorrow."