BOX SCORE

Vincent Cruz scored the winning goal three minutes into the first overtime period to lead the Bearcats to a 2-1 CUNYAC home victory over John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Wednesday night at the Met Oval in Maspeth, New York.

With the result, the Bearcats stay undefeated in CUNYAC with a 3-0 record and 5-4 overall, while the visiting Bloodhounds drop to 1-2 in CUNYAC and 1-9-2 overall.

The match was a defensive struggle for the first 77 minutes with neither team able to score.

John Jay managed to get on the scoreboard first in the 78th minute on a goal by Korede Griffith. The scoring play began with Bryan Kasselbaum hitting a corner kick and the ball was brought down by Navid Allah Morad, who then sent a cross inside the box to Griffith to score on a header for a 1-0 lead.

The Bearcats never lost their composure and quickly tied the match six minutes later. Andreas Hansson fired a corner kick inside the box and Kyle Keague hit the ball past the goalkeeper to tie the match.

Akil George almost gave the Bearcats a 2-1 lead just two minutes later, but his shot hit off the post and was kicked away by the John Jay defense.

The two teams finished regulation time tied and entered the sudden death overtime to try to decide the conference contest.

Vincent Cruz, who entered the match this evening with a team-leading five goals, scored his sixth to win the match.

Hansson recorded his second assist of the match with a perfectly placed through ball that found Cruz beating his two defenders to score against the goalkeeper for the 2-1 overtime victory.

Michael Murphy finished with six saves and received plenty of help with solid defense from his back line of Konstantin Reztsov, Nicholas Kolaj, Alvaro Velasquez and George.

The men’s soccer team will return to action on Saturday, October 1, with a CUNYAC road match at rival Hunter College. Kick off at field #10 on Randall’s Island is scheduled for 5:00 pm. (DIRECTIONS)