STANDISH, ME - Saint Joseph's (4-2, 1-1 GNAC) defeated University of Maine-Farmington (2-3, 0-1 NAC), 3-0, in a non-conference men's soccer match at Westerlea Way Field on Tuesday afternoon. Monks freshman netminder Robert Petrosillo (Methuen, Mass.) notched the first shutout of his NCAA career and stopped all six shots he faced in the SJC victory.
Junior back Joe Murphy (Poland, Maine) netted what turned out to be the game winner in the 37th minute off a botched rebound and Zach Johnson '14 (Westbrook, Maine) doubled the SJC advantage nearly seven minutes into the second stanza with his third goal of the season. Ross Suleski '14 (Amesbury, Mass./St. Thomas Aquinas) punched home an insurance marker for the Monks at the 64:17 mark to cap the game scoring.
Johnson's goal was set up by a beautiful lead pass off the foot of junior midfielder Teddy Palmer (Scarborough, Maine) and the Suleski tally was a slick bender to the top right corner from the left lane just inside the 18.
The Beavers had very few legitimate scoring opportunities as the Monks seemed to control play from beginning to end. St. Joe's held commanding advantages in shots (24-13) and both teams had five corner kick opportunities in the match featuring a pair of former conference opponents.
UMF keeper Tennessee Peters '14 (Scarborough, Maine) made eight saves and Luiz Ristow '15 (Joinville, Brazil) recorded three shots with one on target in a losing effort.
Petrosillo has kicked off his collegiate career with 135 minutes of shutout play and has turned away all eight of the shots he has faced in 1 ½ games. The first-year keeper made a pair of saves in his Monks' debut, which was 45 minutes of work against USM last week.
Also, the shutout is the third for the Royal Blue this season – the same total the side recorded in 19 contests all last year.
With the victory, St. Joe's improves to 3-17-4 in the history of the series with Maine-Farmington. All three of the Monks' wins over the Beavers have occurred over the last four years and all three have been shutout performances. Also, the three goals scored is the most Saint Joseph's has ever scored against Farmington.
Saint Joseph's will host Anna Maria College, a newcomer to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) this fall, on Saturday at 2:30 PM. Maine-Farmington will play at Lyndon State College in a conference contest on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
