Keuka Park, N.Y.: The SUNY Cobleskill men's soccer team channeled their inner "Road Warrior" on Tuesday afternoon in their North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Championship Tournament First Round game versus the number four seeded Wolves of Keuka College. The Fighting Tigers battled their hosts to a 1-1 double overtime tie to send the contest into penalty kicks to see which program would advance to the league's semi-final round on Saturday.

After the initial five-kick round of  penalty shots ended tied at 5-5, and with the sudden death portion of the shootout beginning; the Fighting Tigers sent up junior midfielder Boubacar Doucoure, Manhattan, N.Y., John F. Kennedy High School, and the talented junior found the back of the Keuka net to give Cobleskill the advantage at 6-5.

That put the game in the feet and hands of Wolves freshman midfielder Tanner Runyan, Wellsboro, Pa., Wellsboro Area High School, and Fighting Tiger freshman goalkeeper Garrett Maxwell, Enfield, Conn., Suffield High School, to decide the issue in a classic one-on-one confrontation. When the whistle blew it was Maxwell deflecting Runyan's hard struck shot headed for the left side of the net out of bounds to the give Orange & Black the final decision and advance Cobleskill to Saturday's semi-final round in Abington, Pa.

The Fighting Tigers jumped to an early 1-0 first half lead when in the seventh minute of play junior forward Emile Vwaza, Manhattan, N.Y., Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School, connected from 20-yards out on the right side of the box to make it 1-0.

Cobleskill held that led until the 72^nd minute when sophomore forward Samba Doukhansy, Dakar, Senegal, Crotona International School, took a pass out of a scrum in from of the Fighting Tiger net from sophomore midfielder Jared Burns, Williamsville, N.Y., Williamsville South High School, and blasted it home to tie the score at 1-1.

Throughout the next 47 minutes of regulation and both overtimes neither team could find a way to score necessitating the shootout.

With the tie the Fighting Tigers improve to 9-9-2 overall on the season while the Wolves will close the campaign with an 11-7-1 overall record.

After the hard fought game came to its conclusion a jubilant Fighting Tiger Head Coach Joe Machado best summed it.

"It was just as we expected; a hard fought battle with both team's having their chances to score and it was our defense allowing them only one goal, after we gave them three the last time we were here, that gave us the chance advance. In the shootout, we were slightly more effective than them offensively and of course Garrett made that great save at the end for us. I'm very proud of our guys for working hard and playing together and now we're headed for Abington on Saturday."  

Cobleskill will next be in action on Saturday November 3^rd when they travel to Abington, Pa. for the NEAC Championship Tournament Semi-Final Round where they will face the number one seeded and host team the Nittany Lions of Penn College who finished the year with 12-5-1 overall record including a near perfect 10-0-1 mark in conference play with a kick-off set for 11:30 a.m. The two teams met on Sunday October 21^st in Oneonta, N.Y. for a game that was played at Oneonta State's All-College Field due to weather and field conditions in Cobleskill that day. The result of the contest was a 1-1 tie between the teams in double overtime.