UTICA, NY - After a week off, the Utica College men's soccer team will welcome Nazareth College to Gaetano Stadium on October 9 for a noon start. 
 
Follow Along: Live video and stats can be found at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/. 
 
Last Time Out: Utica picked up its first conference win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Elmira College on October 2. The only score of the game came in the 40th minute when Brady Barnard (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) found a wide open Gian Rodriguez (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Northwood) downfield with only the keeper to beat. As the keeper came out to defend, Rodriguez shot the ball just enough to the right to clear the reach of Elmira goalie Giovanni Garufi and give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead on his first career goal just before the half. In goal, Foti Xidias (Carteret, NJ/Carteret) recorded five saves on 11 shots faced. 
 
Where We Stand: UC enters Saturday 4-4-1 overall and 1-1-0 in Empire 8 play. At 1-1 in the conference, Utica is in a four-way tie for fourth place in the standings with St. John Fisher, Elmira and Alfred all with three points. The Pioneers are currently fifth in the conference with a -0.10 scoring margin as the team has scored nine goals while allowing 10 just past the midway point of the season. 
 
That's Our Goalie: Foti Xidias (Carteret, NJ/Carteret) was named Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Week for the week of September 27-October 3. Xidias recorded his second shutout of the season in the team's 1-0 win over Elmira College on Saturday afternoon. Xidias finished the afternoon with five saves on 11 shots and with the shutout, brought his goals allowed per game average to one. The New Jersey native has started in each of the Pioneers' nine games this season and has totaled 40 saves on a .816 save percentage in over 830 minutes in goal. 
 
Moving Up the Ranks: By playing in his 68th career game last Saturday afternoon, Patrick Hynes (Glenmont, NY/Bethlehem) entered the top-10 in games played in program history. Now in his fifth season with the Pioneers, the defender has made 59 starts, including seven this season, while accumulating six goals and seven assists in nearly 5,000 minutes played. 
 
About Nazareth: The Golden Flyers (8-1-1, 3-0-0 Empire 8) will come into Utica on a seven-game winning streak. During the winning streak, Nazareth has outscored opponents 30-3 which included wins over SUNY Poly (2-0), Alfred (3-0), Keuka (2-0) and Sage (6-1). On the road this season the Golden Flyers own a 2-1-1 record with the loss coming at RIT (3-1) and a 0-0 tie at Brockport. Jake Pawlika leads the team with nine goals this season while teammate Cooper LaValley is right behind him with eight. They are also the top-two leading scorers in the conference while teammate Drew Decker tops the conference with eight assists to his name. In goal, Logan Menna has recorded 32 saves and owns a .60 goals against average. 

Up Next: UC will enter a stretch where they will have four of their next five games on the road, starting with a trip to Rochester to battle St. John Fisher. The game is set for 7 p.m. on October 13.