SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After a solid finish to the regular season, the Skidmore College men's soccer team gears up for another postseason run this week, hitting the road to take on third-seeded Ithaca Tuesday at 2 p.m. The sixth-seeded Thoroughbreds are looking for their first Liberty League Championship in program history.
In the other first-round matchup, fourth-seeded Hobart will host Vassar on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Hobart-Vassar winner will face top seed and host St. Lawrence on Saturday. The Skidmore-Ithaca winner will face second seed RPI on Saturday in Canton. The semifinal winners will meet for the league title on Sunday.
Skidmore (9-5-3, 4-4-1 Liberty League) entered the Liberty League tournament as the sixth seed after a dominant 6-0 victory against Bard in the season finale on Saturday.
Stanley Langyintuo scored twice to lead the Thoroughbreds, with
Ben Caples, adding a goal and assist.
Mike Park,
Matt Schwab, and
Hart Jamieson also factored into the scorebook.
The six goals were the most that Skidmore has scored in a game since a 6-0 win against SUNY Cobleskill on Oct. 13, 2012. The Thoroughbreds finished the final week of the regular season with an impressive 11 goals in the last two games.
As a team, the Thoroughbreds finished the regular season tied for second in the league with 30 goals scored and are second in scoring margin (0.95). Skidmore is also second to RIT with 7.00 shots on goal per game. The 30 goals are the most the Thoroughbreds have scored in a season since 2014. Thorough 17 regular season games, 13 players have tallied a goal and 15 have registered one point. Leading the way is Caples, who is among the Liberty League leaders in goals (five), assists (four), and points (14).
Kyle Barrett (four goals) and
Hart Jamieson (three goals) round out the leading Thoroughbred scorers.
In net,
Sebastian Bosch has played in all but 45 minutes of the regular season, posting a 0.78 goals against average and an .837 save percentage with six shutouts, all second in the Liberty League.
Ithaca, the three seed, comes into the postseason with a 12-2-3 overall record (5-2-2 Liberty League) and has yet to lose at home with a 7-0-1 record. The Bombers are also winners of six of their last seven games, which includes a 2-0 victory over the Thoroughbreds on Oct. 12.
Ithaca's strength sits on defense and in goal, where Max Lichtenstein leads the league with eight shutouts. He has a 0.90 goals against average to go along with a .754 save percentage. Offensively, Jonathan Kyriakidis leads the Bombers in scoring with 12 points on five goals and two assists. Nate Shoen leads the team in assists, with four.
