Cortland Sports Information Department
CORTLAND, N.Y. – The nationally fifth-ranked Cortland men's soccer team raced out to a 5-0 lead less than 25 minutes into the game and eventually earned a 6-1 win versus Nazareth College in the first round of the NCAA Div. III Men's Soccer Tournament Saturday night at Holloway Field. The Red Dragons improved to 17-2-1 and host Kean University in the second round at 6 p.m. on Sunday. The Cougars defeated Gettysburg, 3-1, in the day's second game. The Golden Flyers had their 14-game unbeaten streak snapped and finished the season 13-2-3.
Sophomore Jack Coleman (Endwell/Maine-Endwell) led Cortland with two goals and an assist. Graduate students Blake Aronson (Huntington Station/Walt Whitman) and Lukas Rubio (Liverpool) each tallied a goal and an assist. Graduate student Scott Cebollero (Commack) scored a goal, and the Red Dragons also recorded an "own goal." Juniors Mike Hunsucker (Smithtown/Smithtown West) and Riley Williams (Watertown/South Jefferson) chipped in with an assist. Junior goalie Braden Melveney (Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) stopped one shot in the first half. Sophomore Kyle Barsic (Amityville) played the second half, making two saves in his first collegiate action.
Freshman Jake Pawlika (Oneida/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) scored his team-high 12th goal of the season for Nazareth. Freshman goalie Logan Menna (Lancaster) registered five saves.
Cebollero starting the Cortland scoring barrage, finishing off a corner kick with a header in the fifth minute. Aronson then netted his team-high 14th goal of the season and his NCAA-leading ninth game-winning goal of the campaign in the 15th minute with a one-time shot into the upper corner. Coleman made it a 3-0 game in the 20th minute on a shot from the center of the box. In the 23rd minute, Rubio converted a penalty kick, and just 1:15 later Coleman scored on a header for a 5-0 Red Dragon lead. Pawlika stopped the run with an unassisted goal on a loose ball deep in the box in the 32nd minute.
The only goal of the second half came just 15 seconds into the period when a Nazareth defender deflected a Cortland cross from the left side into the goal to make it a 6-1 game, a score that held up until the final horn.
Cortland 6, Nazareth 1
Scoring Summary (Goals-Assists):
Nazareth: Jake Pawlika 1-0
Cortland: Jack Coleman 2-1, Blake Aronson 1-1, Lukas Rubio 1-1, Scott Cebollero 1-0, TEAM 1-0, Mike Hunsucker 0-1, Riley Williams 0-1
Halftime: Cortland 5, Nazareth 1
Shots: Cortland 22, Nazareth 6
Corner Kicks: Cortland 4, Nazareth 3
Fouls: Cortland 15, Nazareth 6
Saves: Logan Menna (Nazareth) 5 saves (6 GA in 90:00); Braden Melveney (Cortland) 1 save (1 GA in 45:00), Kyle Barsic (Cortland) 2 saves (0 GA in 45:00)
Record after game: Nazareth (Golden Flyers) 13-2-3; Cortland (Red Dragons) 17-2-1 (ranked 5th nationally in Div. III)
