NORTON, Mass. — Senior midfielder Robert Lloyd (Lexington, Mass.) scored in the 64th minute of the match to give the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's soccer team a 1-0 victory over visiting Springfield College on the rain-soaked grass of Keefe Field on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons earn their second straight 1-0 shutout to improve their record to 5-4-6 and 3-1-2 in league play and clinch a NEWMAC playoff berth. The Pride slip to 4-6-5 and 1-3-3.
Prior to the match, Wheaton honored it seven seniors, including Ryan Bell (Berwyn, Pa.), Jon DiDario (Scotch Plains, N.J.), Lloyd, Alberto Franceschi (Caracas, Venezuela), Luke Strange (Portland, Ore.), Gavin Mahoney (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Angus Stringer (Medford, Ore.).
Wheaton's defense was stifling throughout the match, allowing just three harmless shots that did not test the Lyon keeper, while the home team's offense fired 19 shots. Springfield did not attempt a shot until the 82nd minute of play.
Wheaton held a 10-0 shooting advantage in the opening half, but it wasn't until the 64th minute that they found the back of the net. Sophomore midfielder Joey Everett (Danbury, Conn.) served a long ball into the box from in front of midfield, where first year forward Avery Dinham (Swansea, Mass.) pinballed a backward header to Lloyd on his left. Lloyd fired a shot through the raindrops and into the far right post for his third marker of the year with 26:42 left in the match.
The Lyons threatened to add an insurance goal in the 79th minute when Everett, first year midfielder Franck Onguene (Yaounde, Cameroon) and Stringer all took shots that were blocked within a span of 17 seconds. Onguene ended the flurry of shots with a point-blank try that the Springfield keeper was able to corral to keep it a one-goal game with 10:48 left in the contest.
The Pride's only shots came in a span of 1:26. Junior forward Matthew Mela (Natick, Mass.) and first year forward Connor Policarpio (Bristol, Conn.) each fired shots that were blocked by the Wheaton backline with less than 10 minutes to play, before sophomore forward Parker Thornton's (Malden, Mass.) header went wide left of the frame with 6:51 showing on the second half clock.
Lyon sophomore goalie Michael O'Gara (Ardmore, Pa.) was untested to record his eighth shutout of the season to tie him for the fifth-most clean sheets in a season in school history and place him among the top 15 in the nation in shutouts. Sophomore goalie Noah Pote (Washington, Conn.) was credited with five stops for Springfield.
Wheaton returns to action on Wednesday, October 25 when it heads to Newport, R.I. to play NEWMAC foe Salve Regina University at 7:00 p.m., while the Pride also play Salve Regina in their next match on October 28 at 1:00 p.m.
