NEWPORT, R.I. – Sophomore forward Daniel Medina (Yonkers, N.Y.) scored with just 7:45 to play and sophomore keeper Michael O'Gara (Ardmore, Pa.) made 10 saves to give the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's soccer team a 1-0 shutout victory over host Salve Regina University this evening in a New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference contest on Toppa Field in Newport, R.I.
The Lyons, who are ranked second in the most recent NCAA Region II survey, win their third straight 1-0 decision to improve to 6-4-6 overall and 4-1-2 in league play. The victory guarantees a home playoff date for Wheaton in next week's NEWMAC Championship Tournament. The Seahawks drop to 6-9-2 and 0-5-2.
Salve Regina held a 17-11 shot advantage, including 10-7 in shots on goal. The Seahawks owned a 9-3 margin in the opening half.
Medina's game-winning tally came in the 83rd minute of play. First year forward Franck Onguene (Yaounde, Cameroon) created the opportunity for Wheaton when he was able to twist his body and lift a cross into the left post. Senior forward Luke Strange (Portland, Ore.) collected the ball in the slot, where he fired a shot that was turned away by the Salve Regina keeper. The ball ricocheted back into the middle of the box, where Medina met the ball and fired a shot into the right side of the net for his first marker of the year and a 1-0 Lyon lead.
The Seahawks managed just one harmless shot for the remainder of the match.
Quality chances were not plentiful for either side in the opening half of play.
Senior midfielder Robert Lloyd (Lexington, Mass.) looked to open the scoring early for Wheaton with a point blank shot from 10 yards away, but Salve Regina junior goalie Aidan Figueira (Cumberland, R.I.) answered the call for the home team with a diving stab in the 24th minute.
O'Gara answered for the Lyons when Seahawk senior midfielder Zeke Menendez (Avon, Conn.) sent a perfectly placed cross to sophomore striker Brandon Frank (Southbury, Conn.) in the right post. O'Gara came off his line to snuff out a potential shot and keep the match scoreless with 5:51 showing on the first half clock.
Salve Regina kept the pressure on its guests with a pair of scoring strikes early in the second stanza. Sophomore midfielder Aaron Muncaster (Oakdale, Conn.) unleashed a shot just wide of the left post in the 61st minute and graduate student midfielder Michael Manousos (Wethersfield, Conn.) followed with a shot into the left post less than a minute later that O'Gara thwarted with a diving stop.
Wheaton responded with two chances of its own coming in a two-minute span. Onguene uncorked a hard shot from 15 yards away on the right side of the box, but his try clanged off the hands of Figueira in the 64th minute. The Lyons entertained another scoring opportunity when sophomore midfielder Joey Everett (Danbury, Conn.) carried the ball into the right side of the goalmouth, before firing a shot, but the Seahawk keeper came off his line to make a sliding leg save in the 66th minute to keep it a scoreless game.
O'Gara matched his career-high for saves to record his ninth shutout of the year to put him just one shy of the school record for blank sheets in a season at Wheaton. Figueira finished with six stops for Salve Regina.
The Lyons return to action on Saturday, October 28 when they travel to Cambridge, Mass. to take on conference foe Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 5:00 p.m. in the regular-season finale, while the Seahawks head to Springfield, Mass. to play NEWMAC opponent Springfield College on the same day at 1:00 p.m.
