SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. - Trailing 2-0 at halftime, the Northampton men's soccer team was need in a spark, and they received one in the form of Xavier Garces (Bethelem, PA/Liberty), who led a second half comeback that guided the Spartans to a 3-2 victory on Tuesday afternoon at Cougar Park. 

Garces helped get the Spartans on the board when he got taken down in the penalty area and Andrew Tinna (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock Area) converted the resulting penalty kick to cut the margin to 2-1 with 20 minutes remaining. 

Five minutes later, Garces placed a perfect cross off the head of Ayouba Sheriff (Oreland, PA/Philadelphia City) to tie the contest at 2-2. 

The Spartans finished off the comeback when Abdallah Ferdjani (Algeria/El Macir) found the back of the net with just under five minutes remaining in the contest, giving Northampton their first lead of the contest at 3-2.

"X really saved the day," commented Head Coach Mario Barrantes, "he came to play in the second half and really opened things up for us."  

Barrantes also praised goalkeeper William Winters (Albrightsville, PA/Pocono Mt. West), who was credited with 7 saves, "William was huge for us today in the goal, he made some big-time saves to keep us in the game."

The win moves Northampton to 4-6-0 overall and 4-5 in Region XIX. 

Lehigh Carbon falls to 0-8-0. 

The Spartans are now off until October 9th when they host Bucks County Community College.