SCHENECTADY, NY – The Union College men's soccer team fell 4-2 against Ithaca this afternoon. Today's match up featured heavy scoring and a couple of beautifully combined set-pieces.

Ithaca's first strike of the day would come just three minutes into the match. Bomber Nate Mansfield had a throw in which his teammate, Zack Lichtman was able to get a head on to knock the ball in and take the 1-0 advantage.

Union quickly responded, however, as Salvador Lopez Jr. would dribble up-field on the left side and take a strike that got past Ithaca's keeper in the right hand corner. Lopez Jr.'s equalizer would be his fifth goal of the season.

In the 13^th minute, Ithaca's Sam Factor would net the ball when he helped push the ball past Union's keeper, John Weitzman. Factor's goal was assisted by Luke Karen who ricocheted a teammate's cross and helped direct the ball towards Factor.

With just under 25 minutes to go in the first half, Union earned a free kick opportunity. What originally looked like Jeremy Conn would take the kick, he passed it off to Lopez Jr. With Ithaca's defenders spread thin, Lopez Jr. was able to find a way in and scored the fourth goal of the game, his second of the game and sixth of the season.

Ten minutes apart, Ithaca scored two more goals to distance themselves from the Dutchmen and head into the halftime break with a 4-2 advantage.

Despite the back and forth first half, the second half slowed down as both teams picked up the defensive end. What proved to be a chess match of a second half involved no scoring, and the game would end at 4-2 in Ithaca's favor.

The Dutchmen honored their seven graduating seniors this afternoon, and return to action next weekend on the road at Clarkson University.