ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's soccer team defeated Alfred, 3-1, on Tuesday evening to round out its non-conference slate with no losses.
 
With the win, the Bombers improve to 8-1-3 overall as they head into the final five Liberty League matches of the regular season. IC's eight wins so far this season is the most wins for the program since the 2008 season when the Bombers won 11 games.
 
The win also marks the first time in program history that IC has finished its non-conference slate without a loss.
 
"We didn't play our best soccer today but were still able to get the job done which is the sign of a quality team," said Head Coach Kyle Dezotell. "There were some fantastic efforts given from some guys off the bench who completely changed the course of the game. At the end of the day, we comfortably won 3-1 and completed a remarkable undefeated non-conference season."
 
Although Ithaca maintained possession of the ball for a large portion of the game, it was Alfred that registered the first goal of the game, in the 26^th minute.
 
Jeremy Walther scored his first goal of the season on a free kick from 40 yards out, which took a bounce off the turf and went over goalkeeper Tyler Lewin's head.
 
The Bombers responded quickly, however, evening the score in the 37^th minute. Junior Kevin Turi's initial shot was blocked by Alfred goalkeeper Joe Gonzalez, but he controlled the rebound and drilled a shot into the right corner of the goal. It marks Turi's first goal of the season for IC.
 
Ithaca came out of halftime and scored quickly, just 1:28 in. After a foul in the box, the Bombers were awarded a penalty kick, to be taken by Jack Monnes.
 
Monnes sent the ball into the right side of the net, scoring as Gonzalez dove to the left, to put IC up 2-1.
 
Less than five minutes later, in the 51^st minute, the Bombers built their advantage to 3-1. After a scramble in the box, the ball bounced off an Alfred player and into the net.
 
Alfred had a chance to cut IC's lead down to just one goal in the 55^th minute, but Lewin came up with a big diving save on a Cody Cronmiller penalty kick, holding Alfred to just one goal.
 
In the opening minutes of play, Ithaca wasted no time in taking control of things, registering four shots-on-goal in the first 12 minutes.
 
Shots from Nate Mansfield, Thomas Pierce, Monnes and Ben Quatresols were all stopped by Gonzalez, who finished with nine saves on the day.
 
Back-to-back Ithaca shots from Theo Scott and Monnes were blocked in the 19^th minute before a header from Quatresols the following minute was saved by Gonzalez.
 
Junior Justinian Michaels tested Gonzalez one more time before Alfred put up its lone goal, but the goalkeeper made the play to keep IC off the board.
 
In the final two minutes of play, Ithaca was able to get off one more shot-on-goal, from Max Barish in the 44^th minute, but Gonzalez was once again there to stop it.
 
Following Alfred's missed penalty kick, the Saxons put another shot on goal in the 58^th minute, but Lewin came up with his third save of the game on the Bobby Saucier shot.
 
The Bombers continued to put offensive pressure on the Alfred defense and goalkeepers in the remaining 30 minutes of action.
 
In the 64^th minute, Scott put a ball on frame, which was saved by Gonzalez, before a Drew Cohn Shot in the 66^th minute sailed left.
 
Senior Nate Mansfield put his first shot-on-goal in the 69^th minute, but substitute goalkeeper Cody Cronmiller made his first save of the game on the ball.
 
Statistically, Ithaca outshot Alfred 20-5 and generated nine corner kicks to the Saxons one.
 
In his second start of the year, Lewin finished the day with three saves, including one on a penalty kick while Gonzalez and Cronmiller combined for 10 saves for the Saxons.
 
"When I arrived here in 2017, one thing I made very clear to our players was that we were going to strive to win every single game that we played moving forward," said Dezotell. "To complete our non-conference season at 7-0-1 having played the likes of Cortland, Hamilton, Brockport, Oswego and others is simply outstanding and our players should take so much pride in their commitment to achieving results in each and every game. We now look forward to preparing to face a quality side in Skidmore on Friday afternoon on Carp Wood Field."
 
Ithaca is back in action this weekend as the Bombers host Skidmore on Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at Carp Wood Field before facing Union on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Higgins Stadium.