HOUGHTON, N.Y. – Last week's regular season-ending win over Russell Sage not only propelled Houghton men's soccer into its first Empire 8 Tournament since 2016, it gave the program a share of its first E8 regular season title.

Now, the Highlanders (5-1) will look to build on that momentum as they host an E8 semifinal match against No. 3 seed Sage (4-2) on Burke Field at 6 p.m. Friday night.

Houghton was awarded the tournament's second seed and first round bye. The Gators beat No. 6 Alfred, 4-1, in Wednesday's first round. No. 1 St. John Fisher will host No. 4 Nazareth in Friday's other semifinal.

The Highlanders will have to play another strong game to earn a second-straight victory against the Gators, but Head Coach Bobby McColl believes his team is playing on a level that can continue that momentum. "First of all we need to respect Sage. We know that our previous result means nothing and we are expecting them to come here full of motivation," said McColl. "We respect what they can do and we know we need to be at our best to stop them playing. Our focus going into every game is primarily on ourselves and trying to impose our way of playing on the game from the first whistle."

The second-year coach has been pleased to see his team's growth over the shortened season. "We had a setback in the overtime loss at St. John Fisher but the guys have responded really well to that by winning the last three games," said McColl. "We have improved as the season went on and we finished the regular season stronger than we started.

"As a team, there is now a belief we can compete with anyone in our conference when we get close to our best. This has really been the focus throughout the season rather than focusing on wins and losses. I think the guys have become stronger mentally and have showed they can handle pressure and adversity. The atmosphere and buy in from every guy on the team has been excellent. Everyone wants the team to succeed and is willing to put aside their own personal goals for the benefit of the team. The guys also get on really well so it has been a fun environment to be a part of this year."

Wins by both the Highlanders and St. John Fisher will produce a rematch of the 2016 E8 title game, a contest the Cardinals won 3-2. 

Read the Empire 8 Tournament Preview

Visit the E8 Tournament website

The game can be followed live online with both stats and video at the Houghton All-Access Portal.