St. Joseph's of Maine 1, Worcester State 0
Worcester, MA --- An own goal in the 20th minute proved to be the difference as St. Joseph's College of Maine defeated Worcester State University in non-conference men's soccer action this evening at Coughlin Stadium. With the win the Monks improve to 2-1 while the Lancers slip to 1-3.
The tally occurred when St. Joseph's (2-1) senior Paul Robbins (Cornwall, England) made a pass in front of the visiting bench right to the middle of the net. WSU junior DJ Gustafson (Webster, MA), made an attempt to knock the ball away, but his pass instead put the ball into the open net.
With the Monks on top 1-0, both teams had their chances over the next seventy minutes of play to either knot the game or score the insurance goal.
St. Joseph's held an 11-3 edge in the opening frame as their best opportunity came when freshman Joe Murphy (Poland, ME) made the bid in the 36th minute, but junior Evan Wilga (Dudley, MA) made a diving save to prevent the score. Wilga had a busy first half as he ended turning aside five shots.
In the second stanza, both teams were close to even in shots, but the Monks held a slim 8-6 edge.
The Lancers had two good cracks at the St. Joseph's net in the last five minutes of the contest as sophomore Eduardo Cazares (Shrewsbury, MA) made a spectacular effort in the 85th minute to shoot a ball from the right corner to the right side of the goal, but the attempt hit the post and ricochetted out. The other bid came in the 87th when Eric Figueiredo's (Shrewsbury, MA) header was stopped by third-year keeper Nicholas Campasano (Goffstown, NH) in the 87th minute.
Campasano registered five stops in the win while Wilga added eight saves in the tough-luck loss.
The Monks would end with leads in shots (18-9) and corners (4-1). Worcester State also notched a pair of team saves early on in the contest as St. Joseph's was aggressive on the offensive right at the start of the contest on a pair of shots by junior Mike Sanfilippo (Walpole, MA).
Both teams will play again at home on Saturday afternoon. The Lancers will host Southern Maine on Saturday at 2:30 while the Monks open GNAC play with Emerson at 11 AM.