SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Sophomore forward
Vinny McGann (Chelmsford, Mass.) worked his way into a wide open area in the middle of Springfield College's goal area before senior
Avery Dinham (Coral Springs, Fla.) completed his overlapping run and fired a perfect cross that floated just inches above the turf in Springfield. McGann delivered a one-timer with his left foot and potted the game-winning goal for the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's soccer team en route to a 3-1 win in Saturday's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference regular season finale.
Wheaton finishes the regular season at 9-2-6 overall and in second place in the NEWMAC with a 4-1-3 record. The Lyons secured the number two seed and a first round bye in the NEWMAC Championship Tournament. Wheaton will take on the winner of third-seeded Massachusetts Institute of Technology and number six seed Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Friday, November 6 at Keefe Field. Springfield wraps up its 2026 campaign at 5-9-3 overall and 2-5-1 in the NEWMAC.
McGann had the winning goal for Wheaton while Dinham picked up the assist, but sophomore
Paco Polo (Madrid, Spain) picked up the tying goal with a curling free kick in the second half. Polo also earned a secondary assist on McGann's winner. Sophomore
Brent Karpowich (Cranston, R.I.) sealed the deal with an empty net goal to complete the scoring for the Lyons. First year
Mason Fasoli (Weymouth, Mass.) led the team with three shots on goal while senior goalkeeper
Nick Phinney (Gorham, Maine) made six saves across 90 minutes between the posts.
Sophomore Jackson Dillon (Melville, N.Y.) picked up the only goal for the Pride in the first half, while senior Connor Policarpio (Bristol, Conn.) led the Pride with five shots on goal. Sophomore Kam Brown (Freehold, N.J.) had the only other shot on goal for Springfield while junior goalkeeper Tommy Fenton (East Hampton, Conn.) made six saves on nine shots across 90 minutes of play.
Springfield came out of the gates with a high press and intense tempo. They forced Phinney into an early save as Brown spun and fired toward the goal in the fifth minute. Phinney made the stop, but the pressure was still on. Policarpio made Phinney make a save a minute later, and the Lyons shrugged off four corner kick attempts from the Pride in the following minutes. The 20th minute gave the Lyons their best look yet after senior
Declan Rhatigan (Holderness, N.H.) was brought down in the penalty area. Rhatigan stepped up to take the penalty kick from the spot, but his effort was denied by a diving Fenton.
The Pride went back to work on offense, and their effort yielded fruitful results in the 39th minute. Another Springfield corner kick led to chaos in the box. Wheaton cleared the lines but only barely as the ball fell right in front of Dillon about 20 yards away from the goal. A grass-cutting one-timer snaked through dense traffic in front of Phinney and buried itself into the bottom-left corner of the goal to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.
The score held through halftime, but the Lyons emerged from the break with a renewed energy to their play. Their pressure was much higher as they sought to sew the Pride into their own end. It took only five minutes for the pressure to win a scoring chance for the Lyons after Rhatigan was fouled just outside of the Springfield penalty area. Polo stepped up to take the kick, and fired a shot from an area of the field that would typically be used to cross the ball into the middle. His left-footed shot arced high above the crowd of bodies in front of goal and over the head of Fenton, which gave Wheaton its equalizing goal from over 20 yards away.
30 seconds after the goal, Fenton was called into action once more. The Lyons were still applying significant pressure as they looked for the winning goal. Five minutes after their first score, they found the back of the net again. This time McGann finished the chance after a beautiful two-man play on the left wing by Dinham and Polo. The Lyons were off and running, with the Pride seemingly unable to find any momentum. Phinney made two more saves down the stretch, but neither represented any particular danger. The Lyons controlled the remainder, and even scored one more for good measure.
In the final minute of play, Wheaton cleared their lines emphatically after the Pride put everyone into the penalty area for a corner kick. Fenton came off his line to prevent Rhatigan from a one-on-one chance. Fenton came too far off his line, however, which allowed Rhatigan to quickly put the ball back in play for Karpowich, who had run in behind Fenton while the Pride netminder scrambled to recover his position. Karpowich had to ward off a desperate defender as he flicked the ball towards the empty net. His shot had just enough power behind it to bounce in ahead of a diving Fenton, and the Lyons took a 3-1 lead with 30 seconds to play. The remainder played out as a procession, and the Lyons took the comeback win to close out the regular season.
Wheaton and Springfield will wait for the remaining NEWMAC contests to complete as they await their seeding in the 2026 NEWMAC Men's Soccer Championship Tournament.
