Durham, N.H. ? Sophomore Sander Anker scored his first career goal to lead the University at Albany men's soccer team to a 2-0 victory over New Hampshire in America East Conference action on Saturday, Oct. 11. With the victory, the Great Danes now have eight wins through 11 matches for the first time since joining Division I in 1999.

“This was a great win for us,” said head coach Johan Aarnio. “To have a shutout against UNH, a very strong team, was an excellent way for the boys to get back on track. All of the players contributed, and Steward Ceus came up huge.”

            UAlbany (8-3-0, AE 2-1-0) netted the first goal of the match in the 28th minute. Mikael McNamara directed the ball in from the top of the box, where it was deflected off the head of a UNH defender into the goal. The Great Danes carried their one-goal advantage into the break.

            Anker scored the insurance goal to double the UAlbany lead in the 77th minute. Dantas received a throw-in from 25 yards out and quickly tapped the ball ahead to Anker. The sophomore then beat a diving Colin McDonnell through a crowd of players from both teams to put the Great Danes ahead by two goals. New Hampshire (6-3-2, AE 1-2-0), which suffered its first home loss of the season, had its chances to get on the board and attempted three more shots. However, the Wildcats could not push one past Ceus, settling for their second loss of the year against a league opponent and third overall.

            UAlbany's Ceus faced 17 shots and made nine saves to match his career high. He recorded his fourth shutout of the season and the 16th of his career to improve his record to 6-2 overall. UNH's Colin McDonnell stopped three of the 14 Great Dane shots he saw in goal in the losing effort.     

UAlbany continues its America East slate when it hosts Stony Brook on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m.

-agate-

UAlbany (8-3-0, AE 2-1-0)                      1          1          -           2

New Hampshire (6-3-2, AE 1-2-0)            0          0          -           0

UAlbany: Scoring ? Sander Anker (1-0), Claudio Dantas (0-1). Goalkeeper ? Steward Ceus (90:00, 0 GA, 9 saves).

New Hampshire: Scoring ? None. Goalkeeper ? Colin O'Donnell (90:00, 2 GA, 3 saves).

UAlbany 2, New Hampshire 0 (Oct 11, 2008)