STANDISH, Maine - #9/15 Saint Joseph's College (10-0, 6-0 GNAC) defeated Colby Sawyer College (3-6, 3-3 GNAC), 4-0, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's soccer contest at the SJC Athletics Complex on Wednesday evening.
THE LEAD
Senior Brett Mattos (Mahopac, N.Y.) scored what played out to be the game-winning goal in the eighth minute and junior Cody Elliott (Gorham, Maine) was credited with a pair of assists to help the Monks improve to 10-0 on the season.
With the win Saint Joseph's, ranked ninth and 15th in the latest D3soccer.com and United Soccer Coaches national polls, respectively, extends a program-record undefeated streak to 31 games.
THE REST OF THE STORY
St. Joe's doubled the lead in the 27th minute when junior Mitchell Duncan (Sanford, Maine) scored on a tic-tac-toe play off passes from Jackson Taylor (Gorham, Maine) and Austin Ward (North Andover, Mass.). Taylor launched a ball from the 18 to the left post where Ward headed a pass to Duncan, who was unmarked and one-timed a side volley into an empty net.
The 2-0 lead remained until the 66:33 mark when freshman Kuma Onyejose (East Greenwich, R.I.) one-timed a header off a left-to-right crossing pass from sophomore Colin Grant (Harvard, Mass.) to make it a 3-0 game.
The Monks closed out the scoring ledger at the 71:46 mark when freshman Jonathan Brackett (Hollis, N.H.) scored his first NCAA goal off an Elliott feed.
THE KEEPERS
SJC senior Blake Mullen (Manchester, Conn.) logged 75:17 minutes and sophomore David Walbridge (Hampden, Mass.) saw 14:43 minutes in the victory – neither faced a shot. Mullen earned the win and improves to 49-5-7 in his career.
Colby-Sawyer freshman Lucas Boetsch (Rockport, Maine) made five saves in the losing effort.
TEAM STATS
Saint Joseph's held sizable advantages in shots (24-0), shots on goal (9-0), and corner kicks (8-3) in the victory.
NOTEWORTHY
- Tonight's game marks the first time the Monks have held an opponent without a shot this season and fourth occasion in which a foe did not steer a shot on goal
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
With the win, Saint Joseph's improves to 2-0-1 in the history of the series with Colby-Sawyer College, which joined the GNAC this fall after competing in the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) since 2011. Prior to tonight, these two teams had not faced off in men's soccer since the Monks topped the Chargers by a 2-1 score in New London, N.H. on October 19th, 1991.
NEXT!
Saint Joseph's is off until Tuesday when the Monks host GNAC-rival Emmanuel College in a 6:00 PM start. Colby-Sawyer plays at Rivier University Saturday in a GNAC tilt slated to begin at 12:00 PM.