Men's Soccer Bounces Back at Wheelock

BOSTON – Senior forward James Gleason and freshman forward Frank Williams each netted a pair of goals to lead the Mitchell College men's soccer team over host Wheelock College, 6-1, Saturday afternoon in a New England Collegiate Conference contest at Winsor Field.

The Mariners improved to 4-9-1 overall and 2-4 in league play, while the Wildcats fell to 0-11 and 0-5. Mitchell also snapped a five-game losing streak and remained in contention for one of six spots in the upcoming NECC Championship.

Gleason and Williams traded the first two goals of the day to stake Mitchell to a 2-0 lead. Gleason scored first at 31:02 of the opening half after settling the ball in the box and firing a quick, hard shot into the left corner of the goal. Williams then scored off a feed from senior midfielder Dustin Huguenin, who was playing in his first game since September 14 due to injury. Huguenin lifted a cross into the box and Williams unleashed a hard shot into the right corner at 35:13.

Wheelock's Francisco Perez broke up the Mariners' scoring flurry with his first collegiate goal when Miles Carey-Snow found him with a cross from the left side at 36:58 to cut the deficit to 2-1. Mitchell ended up taking the 2-1 lead into the halftime intermission despite a 20-4 advantage in shots.

Gleason and Williams picked up where they left off with the first two markers of the second half to give Mitchell a 4-1 advantage. Gleason's team-leading seventh goal of the year came when freshman Jason Kirby sent a cross to his foot from the top-left corner of the box at 49:05. Williams followed just over four minutes later when he collected the rebound of a shot off the post by Gleason and found the back of the net for his fifth tally of the season.

The Mariners increased their margin at the 59-minute mark when Kirby sent a cross to the top of the box where junior midfielder Michael Berthiaume settled the ball and slipped a shot just inside the right post for his first goal of the campaign. A jubilant Jerome Pyfrom tallied his first career goal and the final score of the afternoon when freshman forward David Pegnataro found him streaking down the left side of the field for a hard shot into the right corner at 78:15.

Mitchell owned a comfortable 39-7 shot advantage for the afternoon. Senior keeper Kevin Woodford joined his younger sister in earning victories for the Mariners' soccer teams with two saves on the three shots that he faced in 72:21 of action. Freshman goalie Chad Harshbarger made his Mitchell debut in the final 17:39 of action and was not tested.

Bobby Venning stopped nine of 14 shots in net for the Wildcats in the first 71:08 of play before yielding to Oginga Walters, who turned away three of four shots in the final 18:52. 

Mitchell will next host Lesley University on Wednesday, October 26 at 3:30 p.m.