courtesy of St. John Fisher Athletics

The St. John Fisher College men's soccer team came through with a 2-0 win over the Elmira College Soaring Eagles in the  2009 ECAC Division III Upstate Men's Soccer Championship title. Luke Lennox, named the game's Most Outstanding Player, recorded each of the Cardinals' goals for the win.

The first half was a quick back-and-forth between the teams, with Fisher dominating play as Elmira lost their leading scorer and top forward, Brian Hashke, to an injury in the first minutes of play. A yellow card to Fisher's Michael Rooney and Elmira's Erik Lee kicked off a slew of cards, but remained the only two for the first half.

The teams took to the locker room with a scoreless tie going into the half.

Elmira kicked off the second half with a goal quickly denied due to a hand ball with 39 minutes left to play.

Play remained tense as the next five minutes kept the referees busy. The first card of the half came with a spat between the Elmira goalkeeper, Jared Micheller, and Fisher's Andrew McIntosh, ending in a red card to McIntosh.

Fisher didn't play a man down for long, when a tackle from Elmira's Alston Eldridge led to a red card that evened the playing field. The ensuing penalty kick, fired into the top right corner of the net by Lennox with 29 minutes left to play, put the Cardinals on the board.

Lennox continued his scoring trend with his eighth goal of the season when he stole the ball at midfield and took the breakaway to the net, working the ball around the goalie and between the pipes from 20 yards out.

Fisher outplayed the Soaring Eagles the entire game, recording 19 shots as compared to Elmira's 10. Goalkeeper Adam Durst tallied five saves in his last game wearing cardinal and gold.