CONTACT: Adam Sopris, a.sopris@hvcc.edu, 518-629-7898 or 518-416-2137
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Saturday, September 8, 2018

Hudson Valley Community College men's soccer (3-2) gave a dominating performance on Saturday afternoon as they defeated Clinton 9-0. Freshman Michael Gosh (Guilderland/Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons) led the Vikings with three goals for his first career hat trick. 

Gosh opened the scoring flood gates with his first goal at the 12:55 mark in the first half when he collected the ball and beat a couple defenders with the dribble to the right side and sent a low shot to the left of the net, just out of the reach of Clinton's goalkeeper.

The Vikings scored again with 29:25 remaining in the first half on a free kick by Nicholas Savallo (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa). Savallo sent the perfect kick to the middle of the pack and found Giovanni Audi (Colonie/Colonie) open in front of the net for the header into the back of the goal, giving Hudson Valley the 2-0 advantage. 

Hudson Valley's offense came out of the break ready to go and they scored two goals in the first two minutes of the second half, extending their lead to 4-0. Ryan Willis (Petersburgh/Berlin) scored the Vikings third goal of the game after he ran down a deep pass for a one-on-one opportunity with the goalkeeper. Willis scored as he forced the keeper to lose balance and he sent the ball through for the goal. 

Minutes later, the Vikings scored again as Savallo collected the ball in the middle of the box amid chaos and sent the ball to the top left corner of the goal for the score. 

Gosh scored the next two goals for Hudson Valley, extending the lead to 6-0. Once again, Gosh beat a pair of defenders to the front of the net and sent a hot shot to the lower left corner for the goal. His third goal came in traffic as he kicked the ball through traffic as he fell on the ground. The ball snuck by the goalkeeper, giving the Vikings the 6-0 advantage. 

The Vikings seventh goal may have been the best goal of the day as Kiernan Hanley (Knox/Berne-Knox-Westerlo) sent a shot toward the goal and Matthew Cummins (Troy/Lansingburgh) came out from the middle of the pack to deflect the shot with his head into the back of the net for the score. 

Wickson Joseph (Hudson/Hudson) closed out the Vikings scoring with a goal with about four minutes remaining in the game. Joseph held off his defender and sent the ball to the back of the net for the goal. 

The men's soccer team returns to the pitch on Wednesday, September 12 to play conference rival Adirondack at 4 p.m.