Brewers Open League Play With Victory Over Union

POUGHKEEPSIE – First Year Joshua Lee scored his first career goal and Jacob Raphan posted his first career shutout as the Vassar College Men’s Soccer team battled to a 1-0 home win over Union Saturday afternoon in both teams’ Liberty League opener.

Saturday’s win gives Vassar four wins in its last five outings, moving the Brewers to 6-2 overall and 1-0 in Liberty League play. Union slips to 3-5-2 overall and 0-1-0 in conference play.

The two teams played a scoreless first half that saw Vassar hold a convincing 11-2 advantage in shots.

The Brewers forced Union keeper, Jackson Magee, to make a pair of saves to keep the game scoreless after 45 minutes.

Raphan made a single save for Vassar prior to the intermission.

Vassar’s best chance came at the 34:05 mark when Gavin Johnson rattled the cross bar.

Vassar took the only three corner kicks over the first half.

The Brewers finally broke through early in the second half when Lee found the scoring column for the first time in his career.

Eli Torrey played a ball into the box from the left wing that Lee corralled and deposited in the back of the net at 53:31 for the only goal Vassar would need in the contest.

Lee’s goal was one of eight shots for the Brewers with attempts in the second stanza even at 8-8.

Union took the only corner kick after the intermission.

Raphan preserved the shutout with a pair of saves in the late stages of the second half.

For The Brewers
Lee is now the seventh Brewer with a goal on the season and the third player with a game winning marker.

Torrey moved into a three-way tie for the team lead in assists with his third helper of the season.

Torrey paced the Brewers with four shots in the game.

Koray Tekin and Jared Fiske each finished with three attempts for Vassar.

Raphan finished the day with three saves to pick up the clean sheet for the Brewers.

Raphan improved his goals against average to 1.31 and his save percentage to .710 with Saturday’s effort.

For The Garnet Chargers
Four different Union players finished the game with two shots.

Magee suffered the tough luck loss in goal with a trio of stops.