Newburgh, New York - Dominating all aspects of the play, the Mount Saint Mary College men's soccer team earned their first Skyline Conference victory with a 2-0 decision over Bard College on Wednesday evening. Senior Billy Szabo (Beacon, N.Y.) netted the eventual game winner in the 25th minute and senior Tom Puccio (Centereach, N.Y.) gave the Blue Knights some insurance in the 51st minute with his first goal of the season. With the win, the Blue Knights improve to 4-7 overall and 1-3 inside the Skyline Conference. Bard dropped to 3-9 overall and 0-4 in league play.

With opportunities scattered throughout the opening twenty minutes, the Blue Knights finally connected at the 24:09 mark. Junior Jon Gasiewski (New Milford, Conn.) rolled a pass across the top of the box to Szabo who fired a low, hard shot on net. The ball glanced off the fingers of the Bard goalkeeper and trickled across the line to put the Blue Knights on top.

In the second half, the Blue Knights didn't waste any time finding their second goal, capitalizing on their first scoring chance. Following a corner kick from senior B.J. Masopust (Wallkill, N.Y.), senior Rob Magnanini (Wallkill, N.Y.) snuck up from defense and drilled a shot that rebounded off a Bard defender. The ball settled with Puccio, also up from his defensive position, and he slid it past the diving keeper. The goal was Puccio's first since his freshman season in 2004.

The back line of defense for the Blue Knights put on a clinic for most of the game, limiting the Raptors to just ten shots overall and only three shots on goal. Puccio, Masopust, Magnanini, and sophomore Tomasz Michalak (Newington, Conn.) prevented Bard from mounting any legitimate scoring chances. Senior Kyle Reiss (Oxford, N.Y.) made three saves to earn his third shutout of the year, lowering his goals against average to 1.08 for the year.

Junior Steven Stevenson (Seattle, Wash.) made 11 saves for the Raptors, who have now lost seven of their last eight games.

Up next for the Blue Knights is a trip to Old Westbury to take on the SUNY Old Westbury Panthers. These teams saw each other earlier this season in the MSMC Invitational, but did not play against one another. The game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 13.