ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – The Hilbert College men's soccer team bettered their league record after their 3-1 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference victory over D'Youville College October 24. Edward Minkel's pair of goals led the Hawks as they improved to 4-3 and dropped the visiting Spartans to 0-8 in AMCC play.

It took a few minutes for both teams to adjust to the quick speed of the ball off the turf field at Orchard Park High School. The Hawks opened the game on the offensive, taking any open shot possible knowing the ball could take a funny bounce early. Blake Barker delivered the first score for Hilbert when his shot to the frame found its way to the back of the net after it deflected off a Spartan defender at 17:32.

After that early onslaught of shots by Hilbert, things balanced out the rest of the first period. Hilbert held a slight 6-4 advantage of shots but were equal to D'Youville in corner kicks (3).

Neither team gained an advantage until Hilbert found its grove at about twenty minutes into the second half. Matt Barth was given a nice lead pass along the right sideline setting him up with only one defender to beat. Barth cut the ball back to the middle and sliced a hard, left-footed shot which just missed the left post and rolled to the outside running track. Then less than two minutes later, Minkel connected on a Jon Davison's cross giving Hilbert their two-goal lead at 66:03.

But things didn't cool off then – the Hawks got even hotter. D'Youville's Matt Smith made two, reactive, point-blank saves to keep things close. Barker fired an attempt which Smith poked away to the foot of Barth who killed a second attempt within milliseconds. Smith somehow got his body in-front of that certain score and play continued. And then less than two minutes later, Blake had a chance again but his restart kick hit the cross bar.

Five minutes later, Davison earned his second assist of the night with his head-touch to Minkel who earned his second goal of the season.

The Spartans' Patrick Mann netted his first score at 84:03 which gave D'Youville their second goal of the season.

Hilbert's Jeremy Kraska was credited with eight saves, with many of the Spartan shots coming at him late in the game. The Hawks outshot D'Youville 16-12 and played even in corners (4). D'Youville led the Hawks with a 9-8 advantage of shots on goal.

With two away games remaining in the regular season, Hilbert faces La Roche College October 26 and Penn State Behrend October 29^th. The Hawks are currently in 5^th place (12 points) and trail La Roche by three points. Penn State Behrend sits in a two-way tie with Altoona for second place (18 points).