Men’s Soccer Suffers Setback at NEC

HENNIKER, N.H. – The Mitchell College men's soccer team suffered a 5-1 setback at the hands of GNAC foe New England College on Saturday afternoon at Don Melander Field.

The Pilgrims opened up the scoring with a goal by Santiago Sanchez just over seven minutes into the match, and they never looked back, tacking on two more goals in the opening half, both coming off the foot of Wyatt Flibbert. Carrying a three goal advantage into the second half, NEC tacked on another when Zachary Acciardo found the back of the net in the 68th minute of play.

Junior Dylan Lucey (Lebanon, Conn.) was able to get one back for the Mariners, netting his team-leading fifth goal of the season off an assist by senior Nick Ghirardi (East Lyme, Conn.) with 75 minutes gone by, but that was all the Mitchell offense could muster on the afternoon. Michael Moore added the final goal of the game for the Pilgrims, scoring unassisted with eight minutes remaining. Logan Cassin, Cooper Ribaudo, Darren Mota, and Anthony Aguiar each were credited with assists for the Pilgrims. Lucey and junior Nick Forst (Ellington, Conn.) tallied three shots each for the Mariners in the loss.

NEC was able to outshoot the Mariners 28-10, and held 14-4 edge in shots on goal.The Pilgrims also edged Mitchell 4-3 on corner kick opportunities.

Freshman Jesse Jenkins (Windsor, Conn.) logged all 90 minutes in goa for the Mariners and set a collegiate high with nine saves. Hayden Walker earned the win in goal for NEC, making one save in just over 82 minutes, while Logan Clough came in for the remainder of the time and collected a pair of saves.

The Mariners (2-6-3, 2-5-2 GNAC) will look to snap a four-game skid when they host Norwich University in a conference match on Wednesday October 11th, at 3:00 pm. The Pilgrims (5-3-4, 4-2-3 GNAC) travel to the University of Saint Joseph for their next game on Wednesday, October 11th.