ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The Elmira College men's soccer team travels for an important mid-season Empire 8 Conference match with Stevens Institute of Technology this Saturday, October 1st, at 4:30 p.m. in Hoboken, New Jersey.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Elmira is coming off of a feel-good win over Marywood University last Tuesday, September 27th. EC's Michael Bryant '18 knocked in a pair of first-half goals to pace the Purple and Gold to its third win of the season and extend the team's home unbeaten streak to 10 games. Bryant opened the scoring in the 12th minute on a left-footed strike from just inside the 18-yard box that finished in the upper left corner. His second goal of the day came in the 35th minute, when Aidan Gray '19 lobbed a high arcing pass to Bryant on the far post, where the California native would snap a header top shelf for the score. Gray finished the match with two assists, while Haruka Okamoto '18 made eight saves in net to earn the first clean sheet of his collegiate career.
 
MAGIC-NUMBER SIX: The Soaring Eagles are unbeaten this season when placing six-or-more shot attempts on target (3-0-1). Including results from the 2015 season, Elmira is 9-3-3 when the squad finds the frame six or more times.
 
BRYANT CLIMBS CHARTS: Bryant's four-point outing against Marywood helped the third-year striker continue his climb up the EC career leaderboard. The Portola Hills, California, native has amassed 63 points in his career on 28 goals and seven assists. His 63 career points rank seventh in program history, just one shy of moving into a two-way tie with former Elmira great, Brian Haschke '10. Additionally, Bryant's 28 tallies place him in sole possession of sixth place in program history.
 
SCOUTING STEVENS: The Ducks enter this weekend's conference bout with a 4-3-1 overall record with a 1-1-0 mark in conference action. Stevens did not begin the season as well as it would have hoped, going 1-3-1 in the team's first five contests, which is the Ducks' worst start to season in over 14 years. However, the Ducks seem to have turned things around lately with consecutive wins, two of which occurred on the road. Credit the play of Patrick Masur for Stevens' recent upswing, as the senior midfielder has scored in each of the Ducks' last three games, with two of those tallies going down as game winners. Masur boasts a team-leading points per game average of 1.13, a mark that ranks second in the E8. Aaron Henry has seen the lion's share of minutes in net for the Ducks this season with seven starts and 663 minutes of action logged. Henry owns a 3-3-1 record to go along with 24 saves and 0.68 goals-against average.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES: Stevens holds an 8-1-1 lead in the all-time series with Elmira. The Soaring Eagles snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Ducks with a 1-1 double-overtime tie at Campus Field a season ago. Elmira's only win in the series dates back to the 2009 season, Coach Keith Moore's first year as an assistant with the Soaring Eagles, when EC shutout the nationally-ranked Ducks at Campus Field, 2-0.
 
LOOKING AHEAD: Elmira returns to action on Wednesday, October 5th, when the Soaring Eagles host Liberty League affiliate, Skidmore College. Wednesday's non-league match with the Thoroughbreds is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at Campus Field.