ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - When Bard junior Ammar Al-Rubaiay ripped a beautiful pass from senior Jacob Hartog into the upper right corner of the Sage goal with just a few minutes left in the first half on Wednesday night, you had the feeling that maybe it was going to be Bard's night.

Sage had totally dominated the first half, dictating the pace of play, controlling possession and peppering the Bard goal with shots. But Bard went into halftime with a 1-0 lead.

It wasn't really a surprise when the match was played more evenly in the second half, because Bard had clearly gotten a boost from Al-Rubaiay's lightning strike in the 42nd minute.

Sage came back, though. The Gators got the equalizer in the 61st minute when sophomore Evan Southworth (Newburgh, NY) headed in a cross from sophomore Chris Peralta (Wyandanch, NY) - and Sage took the lead, 2-1, when freshman Jose Miranda (Bay Shore, NY) banged home the rebound of a blocked shot off the post in the 68th minute.

Play went back and forth after that until Bard started pushing forward, and the push resulted in at least two solid scoring opportunities. With four minutes left, Al-Rubaiay made a nice feed to freshman Yu Sung Eo, who one-timed a floating shot that surprised Sage keeper Tim Madden (Watertown, NY) but bounced off the top of the crossbar.

With less than a minute to go, a direct kick by senior Jonah Peterschild found Hartog in the box, but his header attempt dribbled wide.

Deven Connelly made eight saves for Bard, which is 0-3 heading into this weekend's Raptors Classic, which is Saturday and Sunday. Bard will play Green Mountain College on Saturday at 3, and NYU-Poly on Sunday at 3. SUNY New Paltz is also participating, but the Hawks are visiting Bard later in the season and won't face Bard this weekend.

Sage, 3-0-1, outshot Bard, 19-7.