Box Score ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - They battled through a tough, physical contest with a backup goaltender and really deserved better.

But the Bard College men's soccer team lost a non-league game to City College of New York on Tuesday night, 1-0, when senior striker Samuel Nkama (Owerri, Nigeria) broke through on the right wing and beat replacement keeper Billy Williams (Livingston, NJ) in the 69th minute.

It proved to be enough. That isn't to say Bard didn't have its chances, because it did, but the stars weren't aligned and the ball just never found its way in, despite a 16-14 edge in shots.

Behind some solid work in the middle from Simon Simoski and the tireless defensive efforts of Christian Letourneau and Troy Robertson, Tamaki Chiba got off a couple of blasts that sailed wide, and twice Austin Higgins couldn't find the handle on a slick ball on crosses into the box.

Bard's best chance to even the score came in the 79th minute, when Marco Lorenz took a feed off a direct kick and chipped it deftly goalward, only to have Maxwell Berkow (New York, NY) barely tip it over the crossbar.

Williams, who was making his first collegiate start, made seven saves. Berkow made five.

The Raptors get back into the grind of the Liberty League this weekend, playing at Rochester Institute of Technology on Friday at 4, then at Hobart on Saturday at 2. Both games can be followed via Live Stats, and Live Video is offered of the Hobart contest.