ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College men's soccer team will travel to Buffalo, New York, to face Medaille College in non-conference action on Tuesday, October 18th, at 4:00 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT: The Soaring Eagles lost a hard-fought road matchup against St. John Fisher, 1-0, on Saturday, October 15th. The lone goal of the contest was scored in the 49th minute by the Cardinals' forward Matthew Kaiser. The two programs played evenly throughout, with shots tied at nine apiece and corner kicks 4-3 in the Cardinals favor. The Purple and Gold did have their chances to take an early lead or tie the game up. Donte Donegal '18 led the team in shots with three; his best opportunity coming in the first-half when he sailed a header just high of the net. The Soaring Eagles had six second-half shots, but could not put any past Fisher's goalkeeper. EC's Jordan Hodlofski '17 made three saves in his first start of the season.

PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS: Saturday's contest was pivotal for Elmira's E8 standings. With the loss, the Purple and Gold's E8 record dropped to 1-4, good for seventh place. Elmira is two games out of fourth-place with two more conference matches left to go. The Soaring Eagles will need to win both of their E8 games and have Fisher lose their last two conference matches if they want to make the conference tournament.

GETTING THE OFFENSE BACK ON TRACK: Saturday's contest was the first shutout for the Soaring Eagles since the Purple and Gold lost 3-0 to Houghton College on September 24th. In the five matchups before the loss to Fisher, the Soaring Eagles went 2-3, with one of those loses coming in overtime. Elmira will look to Michael Bryant '18 to help get the offense back on track. During that five game stretch, the Portola Hills, California, native scored four of his team-leading seven goals this season.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS: Medaille has been on a tear of late, going undefeated in its last nine matches. The Mavs overall record currently sits at 9-3-2, and their home record is a perfect 4-0-0. The Mavericks' most recent contest was a 5-0 victory over Penn State Altoona at Medaille's All High Stadium. Medaille is 1-1 against Empire 8 programs so far this season, besting Houghton College 1-0 and falling to Alfred University 1-0. The Mavericks have multiple players that sit close to the top of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) leaderboards. Freshman forward Lachlan Wilkinson sits second in the conference in both points (29) and goals (12).  Reigning AMCC All-Conference Third Team goalie Brian Arcara has also had a strong start to the season. Arcara ranks second in the league in goals against-average (0.70) and third in save percentage (.773).

SERIES HISTORY: Tuesday's contest will mark only the second meeting between the two programs and the first in the last 38 years. The first meeting was a 6-1 victory for the Purple and Gold in the 1978 season.

UP NEXT: The Soaring Eagles will return home to Campus Field for the first time in two weeks, when they host E8 foe Nazareth College on Saturday, October 22nd, at 3:00 p.m.