Monks Overpower Raiders, 6-1

Monks Overpower Raiders, 6-1

NASHUA, NH – Saint Joseph's (5-4-2, 2-1-1 GNAC) toppled Rivier College (1-9, 0-4 GNAC), 6-1, in a GNAC Men's Soccer contest on Saturday. Jesse West '12 (Sheldon, VT) tallied a pair of first-half goals in the lopsided victory.

Paul Robins '11 (Cornwall, England) sparked a three-goal first stanza with a penalty-kick marker in the eighth minute and West's goals followed to close out the opening period. For the Monks, Gerald Cushing '13 (Hampden, ME), Joe Murphy '24 (Poland, ME) and Brandon Noltkamper '11 (Bath, ME) all scored their first goals of the 2010 campaign in the second half, with Cushing and Murphy netting the first of their collegiate careers.

SJC keeper Nick Campasano '12 (Goffstown, NH) allowed a goal and made two saves in 60:05 of play to earn the victory in goal. Kenny Grade '14 (Hampton, NH/Saint Thomas Aquinas) notched his second NCAA appearance in net and was not forced to make a save in 29:05 of mop-up duty.

Saint Joseph's set a new program record for shots with 39 in today's win over the Raiders. The Monks' previous high for shots (37) came in a 1-0 victory over Johnson & Wales on September 9th, 2009. The SJC Men's Soccer team has scored six or more goals just three times in program history, with the last occurrence being a 7-0 win over the Raiders on October 25th, 2008.

After a Rivier foul in the box, Robins opened the game scoring at the 7:23 mark with a penalty-kick attempt to the lower left corner past Raiders keeper John Jarvis (Henniker, NH). West, who posted his first collegiate multiple-goal effort in the win, netted his first of the day off a great lead pass from Jack LaFreniere '13 (Alton, NH) in the 27th minute. Just over nine minutes later West finished a right-to-left crossing pass in the box from Ross Suleski '14 (Amesbury, MA/Saint Thomas Aquinas) to lift the Royal Blue to a 3-0 lead heading into intermission.

Similar to the game's opening, the Monks scored in the eighth minute of the second stanza to collect a 4-0 cushion. LaFreniere collected a rebound off his own shot and passed to an open Cushion, who buried a kick for his first collegiate marker.

The Raiders got on the board two minutes later off a free kick opportunity. Striker Chris Nugent (Camberley, England) took the kick and beat Campasano with a shot to the upper right corner.

Murphy followed with his first NCAA tally at the 59:48 and Noltkamper closed the game scoring with a free-kick goal with 1:30 remaining.

For Rivier, Jarvis registered 17 saves in the losing effort. Saint Joseph's improves to 3-2-1 against the Raiders in the history of the matchup.

Saint Joseph's will travel to Brunswick, ME on Sunday for a non-conference tilt against Bowdoin College. Rivier will face cross-town rival Daniel Webster on the road Wednesday at 3:30 PM.