ALBANY, NY – A Russell Sage goal off a long throw in from near the corner bounced free and was knocked into the lower corner of the Nazareth College goal for a 2-1 overtime win for the Gators Thursday night in an Empire 8 game played at Albany College of Pharmacy stadium.

Sage (1-0, 1-0 E8) opened the scoring 15 minutes into the game for the early lead and kept the lead for the rest of the first half and into the second half.

With less than 19 minutes remaining in the second half, Nazareth (1-1, 1-1 E8) evened the score as junior Zein Mohamed sent a perfect corner kick into the six-yard box where freshman Cooper LaValley headed the ball down and into the lower corner of the goal as the Golden Flyers tied the game at 1-1.

With 13 seconds remaining in the half, Mohamed fired a long shot from 25 yards out that missed wide to the left of the goal and the teams headed to overtime.

It was the third time in the five all-time meeting between the two schools that the game went to overtime. Sage posted a 2-1 overtime win at the 2017 Empire 8 Tournament and the two teams played to a scoreless tie in the 2018 regular-season match.

The overtime winner came 1:42 into the extra session after a pair of Gator throw-ins from deep in the Nazareth zone. The first was deflected away and kicked out of bounds but the second was into the six-yard box and deflected off a pair of heads before falling to the turf and the foot of Nathan Ficht who sent a short shot into the lower corner to end the game.

Freshman goalie Trevor Clark was credited with two saves on the night.