The Hawks, seeded 3rd in the Region III tournament, and 9th in the NJCAA National Poll, trailed 2-0 at halftime, before charging back with two goals in ten minutes to force the game into overtime. With 4:23 left in the first sudden death period, Tyler Deluca (Glenville, NY/Burnt Hills HS) buried a shot from 25 yards out in the upper corner to give the Hawks a hard fought victory. The Hawks improve to 16-2-1 on the season. Cayuga ends their season with a record of 10-4-2.
After watching the visiting Spartans score twice in the first half, the Hawks dug deep and began a furious comeback. MVCC's first goal came on a fantastic individual effort by the regions leading scorer, Armin Budnjo (Utica, NY/Proctor HS). After gathering the ball from 30 yards out, Budnjo beat two Cayuga players and drilled a shot in the lower far corner to cut the lead in half. Ten minutes later, Armin Mekic (Utica, NY/Proctor HS) was on the end of a corner kick taken by David Gould (Frankfort, NY/Frankfort-Schuyler HS) and flicked on by Nate Pacheco (Oswego, NY/Oswego HS). Each team had chances to win in regulation, but neither were able to finish, until the strike by Deluca to end the game.
The Hawks will now face off against Herkimer CCC at 11:30am Saturday in the Region III 'B' Championship game to be played at Tompkins-Cortl