CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton men's soccer team hosted Albertus Magnus in a non-conference matchup Wednesday night, using two second-half scores from Gonzalaiz Arakaza to complete yet another comeback and protect home field in a 2-1 victory.
 
Arakaza's goals were his third and fourth of the season, adding on to his four assists to vault him into the lead in team-lead in points with 12. In goal, meanwhile, Andres Soto-Burgos made his 11^th start of the season, making nine saves — pushing him over the 200-save mark for his career — including a denial with just 14 seconds to go in regulation to clinch the win.
 
The Falcons (8-4-4, 6-2-3 GNAC) controlled the game early, forcing Soto-Burgos to make a pair of saves in the opening 12 minutes before a volley from the side of the box snuck over him to put Albertus Magnus up one.
 
Neither side was able to create too many chances for the remainder of the half — the Falcons held just a 6-2 advantage in shots after 45 minutes — meaning the Spartans (5-8-2, 2-3-1 LEC) went into the break down 1-0.
 
Castleton opened the second half on the backfoot once again, but a trio of saves by Soto-Burgos held Albertus Magnus off long enough for the Spartans to finally break through in the 70^th minute on Arakaza's first of the night.
 
Seth Dube corralled a Falcons clearance and sent a through ball to Matt Spilller toward the goal line. The freshman sent a one-time cross into the box that was headed by Jacob Henderson but saved. There to capitalize on the rebound, however, was Arakaza, who passed the ball cooly into the back of the net to level the score at one.
 
With momentum now firmly on their side, Castleton continued to control the tempo of the game and just three minutes later, took their first lead of the contest.
 
This time it was Spiller playing around with his teammates on the right side of the field before sending a long cross from the 25-yard line right toward a cutting Arakaza, who leapt over the Falcons' defender and headed the ball into the bottom corner. The assist was Spiller's team-high fifth of the season, and the freshman has now tallied a helper in three of his last four games.
 
With under 30 seconds to go Albertus Magnus got one last chance off of a corner, but a liner from Johan Stagnaro was denied by Soto-Burgos to seal the Spartans' second come-from-behind victory in three games.
 
Castleton will look to carry this momentum into their Senior Day matchup with UMass Dartmouth Saturday, October 22. Kickoff is at 12 p.m.