ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's soccer team opened the 2013 season in exhilarating fashion tonight as freshman Alex Reid (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) took a crossing feed from senior Kyle Clifford (West Seneca, N.Y./St. Francis) in the 104th minute and booted it into an open net to give the Wildcats a thrilling 3-2 victory in double overtime over rival Roberts Wesleyan College.

Clifford broke loose up the middle into the attacking third and took the ball to the left side of the box, fighting off a couple RWC defenders and drawing the attention of Redhawks' net-minder Florian Witte along the way.  He then found the streaking Reid with a perfectly placed crossing feed and the freshman made good on the opportunity, sending the Daemen bench into a frenzy.

"Wow. What a game.  What an effort by our guys," said an exciteable Mark Spacone, the Wildcats' third-year head coach, afterwards.  "I thought we played our system pretty well for the first time out this year and to be rewarded with a win in this fashion is awesome."

It looked as if the Wildcats were going to come away victorious in regulation.  Clifford notched two first half goals, the 21st and 22nd goals of his career, to put Daemen ahead by one at halftime.  He struck first in the fifth minute when he blasted a shot to the top right corner off a free kick from just outside the box.  RWC's Johnny Lobene knotted the score at 1-1 in the seventh minute before Clifford recorded his second goal of the night some 13 minutes later.

The second half was scoreless until the Redhawks got the equalizer from Brandon Bianchi in the 79th minute.  Daemen was whistled for a foul in its own box and Bianchi burried the penalty kick attempt, knotting the score at 2-2 and ultimately, sending the game to overtime.

That set the stage for Reid's signature moment -  a game-winning goal in his collegiate debut.

RWC launched 17 total shots but placed just eight on frame.  Junior goalkeeper Matt Daddario (Amherst, N.Y./Sweet Home) made six saves to earn the win between the pipes.

A physical affair, the two teams combined for five yellow cards in the match.

The win snapped Daemen's six-game skid in the all-time series vs. RWC.  The Wildcats and Redhawks are both members of the East Coast Conference, although tonight's conest was a non-league tussle.  The two teams meet again, this time in conference play, back in Rochester on Sept. 28.

Daemen looks to move to 2-0 when they travel further down the New York State Thruway to Syracuse on Saturday to face Le Moyne College in a 12 p.m. start.