CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Albany, which won just three games a year ago, earned its 10th win of 2008 with a 2-1 victory over Hartford in America East men's soccer action at Al-Marzook Field on Wednesday evening.
The Hawks (7-5-2 overall, 3-2-0 America East) struck first on Ivan Guarin's goal 7:40 into the contest. The Great Danes (10-3-1, 4-1-1) wasted no time tying the score as Shaun Kane, who was named America East Co-Player of the Week on Monday, found the back of the net just 23 seconds later. Don Johnson gave Albany the lead 3:13 into the second stanza and goalkeeper Steward Ceus made the lead stand with four second-half saves.
With the victory, Albany moved into a first-place tie with Boston University, which played Vermont to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night at Nickerson Field. The Terriers (7-5-3, 4-1-1) controlled most of the first half and took a 1-0 lead into the break on a Tom Strackhouse tally. The Catamounts (6-3-6, 2-1-2) evened the score in the 62nd minute on a shot by T.J. Gore that snuck inside the left post.
In other action on Wednesday, UMBC (6-6-2, 1-3-1) snapped a five-game winless streak and earned its first conference win of the year with a 1-0 triumph over Binghamton (8-4-3, 3-2-0) at UMBC Soccer Stadium. Chris Williams scored his second career goal, both of which are game-winners, at the 56:26 mark and goalkeeper Steve King recorded his fifth shutout of the season with five saves.
At Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium, the Seawolves (2-11-3, 0-3-2) earned its second tie in three games with a 1-1 deadlock against New Hampshire (6-4-4, 1-3-2). Both scores came on free kicks as the Wildcats' Kyle Urso struck from 20 yards out in the 35th minutes for his fourth tally of the season. Stony Brook tied it up with just over 15 minutes remaining in regulation on Mihailo Pavlisin's free kick from 25 yards.
America East action continues with four games on Saturday as Boston U. travels to UMBC, Vermont battles Maine, Binghamton hosts New Hampshire and Hartford takes on Stony Brook.