Men's Soccer | 11/1/2005 3:44:00 PM

Box | Updated stats
ITHACA, N.Y. (Nov. 1, 2005) -- Fourth-seeded Nazareth advanced to the championship game of the Empire 8 Conference in men's soccer Tuesday after outscoring host and top-seeded Ithaca in penalty kicks, 4-1.

The game officially goes into the books as a 0-0 tie after the teams played 110 minutes of scoreless soccer. Nazareth will play for the championship Saturday at RIT at 1 p.m. The Tigers also advanced on penalty kicks, 4-3, over St. John Fisher after the teams finished the game tied 1-1.

"Our defense was resilient the whole way," said Nazareth's second-year coach Danny Gilbertson. "This is massive for our club. We've lost some heartbreakers down here, so it was nice to see everyone sticking together and playing as a unit."

Ithaca outshot Nazareth 22-8 overall, including 8-1 in the two overtimes. Junior goalie Alex Kilroy, however, made four saves to record his fourth shutout of the season.

Kilroy also made two key saves in the penalty kick session to enable the Golden Flyers (6-9-4) to advance to the next round. In the best-of-five round-robin, Nazareth needed to take only four kicks and the Golden Flyers converted them all. Mike Deichmiller (pictured), Matt Elliott, Ed Babcock and Jeremy Bergan converted kicks for Nazareth.

The Bombers (12-3-1) came into the game riding a school-record 11-game winning streak that began with a 2-0 regular-sesason win over the Golden Flyers Sept. 17. Tuesday's loss, however, marked the third straight year that Ithaca came into the E8 Tournament as the top seed and was eliminated in the semifinals.

Nazareth will be competing in its third Empire 8 title game for men's soccer. The Golden Flyers lost to Ithaca in the 2002 championship game, then shared the title with Alfred in 2003.