| 9/24/2005 6:15:03 PM

UTICA, NY - The RIT Men's Soccer team (4-3-1, 1-0-0 Empire 8) opened their Empire 8 schedule with a 3-1 win over Utica College on Saturday afternoon.

Chris Somers (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) opened the scoring in the first half, tallying his first career goal on an assist from Jorge Cirulizza (McLean, VA/Gonzaga).

Senior midfielder Mike Lawson (Wall, NJ/Wall) (Wall, NJ/Wall) scored his first goal of the 2005 season to make it 2-0 Tigers late in the first half.  Cirulizza recorded his second assist of the game on the goal.

After Utica closed the gap to 2-1, senior co-captain Dennis Smyth (Potsdam, NY/Potsdam) (Potsdam, NY/Potsdam) gave RIT their two goal lead back with his first goal of the season, a diving header off a pass from Chuck Marion (Syracuse, NY/Westhill) (Syracuse, NY/Westhill) for the final score.

Dan Slocum (Irondequoit, NY/Bishop Kearney) (Irondequoit/Irondequoit) made nine saves in net to earn the victory.

RIT is back in action on Tuesday, as they host Buffalo State at RIT Field at 4 p.m.  The game will be broadcast  on WYSL 1040 AM.