The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's soccer team needed late goals from Michael Corbi and Robert Hirt and Nicolas Palumbo's shutout in net to defeat Briarcliffe College, 2-0, at Spartan Field. STAC has won three of it's last four games overall and improves to 3-1-1, with Briarcliffe dropping to 5-2-1 on the season.

Both teams battled through an evenly-played first half, as evidenced by the scoreless tie and the deadlock in shots at 10-10. The second half took on much of the same feel, with Spartans keeper Palumbo and Briarcliffe's Gustavo Ciufuentes each holding his opponents off the board.

With overtime looking increasingly likely, STAC finally found a hole in the visitors' defense, with Jack Legg sending a nice pass to Corbi, who turned and fired past Ciufuentes with just under seven minutes left to play.

Now forced to press for the equalizer, Briarcliffe fell victim once again, with Legg again accounting for the distrubtion. This time, his well-struck cross through the penalty area found Hirt standing alone in front of the net, and the senior artfully put it home to give the hosts an insurance marker with less than two minutes remaining.

That would be more than enough for Palumbo, who made his first appearance of the season count, making three saves to earn the shutout. Ciufuentes turned aside five STAC shots, with the Spartans leading the overall shot tally, 18-16.

The Spartans have a huge stretch of schedule coming up, playing their next five games at Spartan Field, all against East Coast Conference opponents. That stretch starts this Saturday, September 28, when STAC hosts Dowling College at 3:00 as the back end of a double-header featuring the women's teams starting at 12:00 noon.