ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The College at Brockport men's soccer team earned a win in their season opener on Friday evening, using a Justin Mercer 68th minute goal to beat Rochester Institute of Technology 2-1. The Golden Eagles start their season 1-0, while the Tigers drop to 0-1.
 
Quintin Volpe got the scoring started for Brockport early in the contest, intercepting a pass and beating the goaltender in the fourth minute. Volpe was the leading goal-scorer for Brockport a season ago (5), and didn't take long to find the back of the net in 2017.
 
After 20 minutes of scoreless play, RIT knotted the game at 1-1 when Simon Garno fed a pass to Anthony DeFeo who found the back of the net. The teams would remain tied up at a goal apiece for the remainder of the period, with only one more shot on net which was saved by Joseph Romano.
 
The Golden Eagles got some offense going ten minutes into the second stanza, but two RIT saves kept the game knotted up for the time being. They were finally able to break through at the 68:32 mark when Volpe served a ball into the box that Mercer hammered past the goaltender.
 
The Green and Gold defense was lock-down from that point forward, allowing the Tigers to get just one more shot on goal which was stopped by Romano, who finished the night with four saves.
 
Brockport will be back on the pitch tomorrow when they travel to another crosstown rival in Nazareth College for a game beginning at 4 p.m. They'll begin their home slate on Tuesday when they welcome Medaille for a 5 p.m. contest.
 
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