Men's Soccer | 11/8/2006 2:49:00 PM

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Nov. 8, 2006) -- Nazareth won its first-ever NCAA Tournament game in men's soccer Wednesday as the Golden Flyers scored once early and once late in a 2-0 win over visiting Geneseo at Golden Flyer Stadium.

The victory enabled the Golden Flyers to set a school record for wins in a season. Nazareth is 14-4-2 overall and visits Medaille (20-1) in the next round Saturday at 6 p.m. at the University of Buffalo. Geneseo finishes the season at 14-5-1.

"We had good effort and great enthuasiasm and those are the two ingredients that we need to have every time," said Nazareth's third-year coach Danny Gilbertson. "It's a great group of boys who have believed since day one."

Nazareth scored in the ninth minute on an unassisted goal by senior Scott Rigney. A shot by Nazareth's Philip Holmberg was deflected by a Geneseo defender and landed on the foot of Rigney at the top of the penalty box. Rigney netted his fifth goal of the season on a low shot to the left corner of the goal and past Geneseo's diving goalie, Jeremy Reeves.

Geneseo picked up the pace in the second half and had the ball in Nazareth's end for a good part of the half. The Blue Knights had two shots -- one by Joe Walter and one by Ken Zawistowski -- skip off the crossbar in the last five minutes of regulation.

Nazareth's second goal came with :36 left as junior Paul Pacitto (pictured) converted a crossing pass from Holmberg by chipping a shot past Reeves to clinch the victory.

Nazareth had an 11-9 edge in shots and goalie Alex Kilroy made three saves for his seventh shutout of the season and 18th of his career, both marks equaling school records.

"Geneseo deserves some credit," Gilbertson said. "They battled the adversity of being down by a goal for most of the game and they kept coming after us."