SPARKILL, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's soccer team suffered a hard-fought 3-2 defeat today in East Coast Conference action versus Saint Thomas Aquinas College at Spartan Field.

The loss today drops Daemen to 2-6-0 overall, and keeps the Wildcats searching for their first league win after two outings thus far in 2015.  STAC improved to 3-5-0 overall and 1-2-0 in league play with the win.

A pair of STAC goals about four minutes apart proved to be the difference today.  With the score knotted at 1-1, STAC's Chris Estevez scored at the 42:12 mark to put the host Spartans ahead going into halftime.

Shortly thereafter, STAC's Brad Neal opened the second half by netting his second marker of the game, this one at the 46:17 mark to put the hosts up 3-1.

Daemen got a goal by freshman Kyle Tracy (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse), his team-leading third of the season, at the 76:02 mark to make things interesting.  But, STAC goalkeeper Jack Nicholson went unchallenged the rest of the way to preserve the win.

Neal opened the scoring at the 11:28 mark to put the hosts ahead early.  Neal's goal was assisted by Brian Kinsella who went on to assist in all three STAC goals on the day.

Daemen knotted the score at 1-1 when junior striker Cole Beale (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) netted his first goal of the season at the 37:28 mark after finishing the play off a feed from Logan Podrebarac (Burlington, Ont./Tiffin University).

A tighlty-contested affair, STAC held a slim 18-17 lead in total shots, and a 6-5 lead in shots on goal.

Nicholson made three saves for the Spartans to pick up the win.  His counterpart, Daemen's Justin Figler (Grand Island, N.Y./Grand Island), made three saves of his own, but came up on the losing end.

Daemen returns to ECC action by visiting Roberts Wesleyan College this Friday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.