Spartans Hold Strong On The Road, Win 2-1

Jamestown, N.Y. - The Spartan men had a long trip, as they traveled west to meet NJCAA Region 3 counterparts, the Jamestown JayHawks. The Spartans game kicked off late, due to construction West of Buffalo on 90, that held up traffic for 45 minutes. The men's team started quickly out of the gate, and it only took four minutes to get onto the score sheet with freshman, Chris Davison (Newcastle, England), when he redirected a pass from a Jayhawks defender over the Jamestown keeper, and into the back of the net to put Cayuga into the lead.

The Jayhawks were level about 5 minutes later, when a miscommunication in the Cayuga defense allowed Jamestown to tie the game as a shot went past the Cayuga Keeper, Tautis Poniskiatis (London, England). It took the Spartans about 20 minutes into the game to settle their stride, and they were able to get more chances in front of the Jayhawks net. Just 7 minutes before half time when a great build up through the midfield pairing of captain Sean Wynn (Liverpool, England), and vice-captain Thomas Rivet (London, England), the ball was switched to Sean Richards (Cardiff, Wales). Richards then whipped an amazing crossed ball right  through the Jamestown defense, for Matthew Harty-Spencer (Sunderland, England) to finish at the back post to score the final goal of the game. 

The second half defending was back and forth, with both sides not getting a lot of chances in front of net. If it wasn't for some excellent defending from Connor Doogan (Belfast, Ireland), Josh Grace (Glasgow, Scotland), Ashley Brown (Birmingham, England), and Michael Haskins (Belfast, Ireland) kept the Jayhawks at bay. Tautis Poniskiatis also worked and organized his defense, and was called into action several times from some deep crosses from the Jamestown Jayhawks, as they pressured the Spartans all the way back into their penalty box. The Spartans held strong and with the final whistle sounding, and the Cayuga Spartans won 2-1 and move to 6-0 for the season. 

Coach Wynne had this to say to us after the game, "I really thought it took us a while to get started, and get into the groove of the game, but we responded very well. The movement and work rate was outstanding from all of the team. I couldn't ask for a better group of lads to take this journey with. They held strong, and done a fantastic job defending everything that the Jamestown Jayhawks presented. It was a great team effort."

The Cayuga Men's Soccer Team take a few days off over the weekend and then face the Genesee Cougars on Wednesday the 24th, at Emerson Park in Auburn, N.Y.