The Castleton State College men’s soccer team evened its record to 2-2 after narrowly escaping SUNY Cobleskill on the road on Sept. 12. The Spartans won the game 2-1 with a late goal from sophomore forward Trevor Kotrady. Kotrady took a feed from senior midfielder/forward Josh Costa and sent it home for his second goal on the year with 15:15 left in the contest.Coach John Werner, now in his seventh season, was proud of his team’s performance.

“[The players] represent Castleton well,” said Werner. “Kotrady has stepped up and [sophomore defender] Jake Roswell has played very well. And [senior defender] Anthony Buehler is just a great player.”

The Spartans struck first with Costa finishing a Kotrady cross as the duo was no match for the Fighting Tigers’ backs. The tally that gave the Spartans a 1-0 lead came just ten minutes into the match and stayed as the lone goal until the second half.

Cobleskill midfielder Aaron Gallusser went long-range when he bent a free-kick over and around the Spartan defenders from about 35 yards out to level the score at 1-1.

Castleton dominated the shot column 30-9.

Getting the nod in goal for the Spartans was freshman Nate Koenemann who stopped two of the three shots he faced.

“[Koenemann] worked hard in practice,” said Werner. “We thought he deserved it.”

The Spartans traveled to Southern Vermont College on Sept. 8 where they were upset by the Mountaineers by a score of 1-0 despite dominating the game once again. Castleton outshot S.V. 22-5 and had a 14-2 advantage in corners but could not capitalize and match a 16th minute goal from Mountaineer, Nick Haggerty.

“We hoped to be at least 3-1 and instead we’re 2-2,” said Werner. “We got upset on Wednesday because we had trouble finishing and it cost us one win.”

Coming up big for Southern Vermont was goalkeeper Aaron Eschler who made ten saves against the resilient Spartan attack.

Castleton travels to SUNY Plattsburgh tonight for a non-conference showdown and returns home Saturday. Sept. 18 to take on SUNY Potsdam.