NEWTON, MA—In the 80th minute of play, Mount Ida College men's soccer sophomore forward Steven MacDonald (Medford, MA) pulled the Mustangs ahead 3-2 on a head ball to break up a 2-2 stalemate and upset Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) rival Lasell College on Columbus Day.
The Mustangs, who have not beaten the Lasers since the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) 2005 championship matchup, improve to a 5-7-0 overall record and a 4-4-0 league slate. Lasell, who has been on a five game winless stretch (0-3-2) after the best start in program history (6-0-1), lands at 6-3-3 so far this season, and 3-2-2 in GNAC play.
Lasell put the ball in the net first as senior Jonathan Klippert (Cumberland, ME) slid a feed between two Mustang defenders to Lasell's leading scorer Mike Skelton (Conway, NH). Skelton poked the shot across the goal line for the 1-0 advantage at 22:16.
Just two minutes passed before Mount Ida was awarded a penalty kick after a hard foul in the box by the Lasers. Gilberto Alvarenga (Marlborough, MA) converted on the chance slicing a shot into the lower right corner of the Lasers' net.
Before the halftime break, Lasell regained control of the score board when Dan Gleason (Weymouth, MA) took aim from a direct kick at 25 yards out. Gleason lodged the ball over a swarm of players before it bounced, untouched into the opposite corner of the net for the 2-1 lead.
The second tie of the game came about in the 55th minute of play when MacDonald blasted a shot off a redirected pass by Michael Templeton (Charlestown, NH).
The offending goal produced the 2-all knot in score that would stand through a 25 minute back-and-forth stretch leading up to MacDonald's game-changer with 10 minutes to play. The game-winning goal was headed in off a throw in by Alvarenga, at 80:05.
Lasell's rookie goalkeeper Aren Moorman (Somerset, NJ) made four saves in the defeat while Mustang keeper Mat Pils (Monroe, CT) also came away with four saves en route to the Mount Ida victory.
In their next contest, Lasell will face non-conference Rhode Island College on Wednesday, October 12th at 3:30 p.m. on Taylor Field