NEWTON, Mass. (10/14/17) – The Lasell men's soccer team honored its four graduating seniors, John Enright (North Andover, Mass.), Austin Tomasetti (Elmsford, N.Y.), Demetri Bottos (Belmont, Mass.), and Stephen Blood (Windsor, Conn.), prior to their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest against Saint Joseph's College of Maine on Saturday afternoon at Taylor Field.
The Lasers dropped a 5-0 decision to the reigning champion Monks, and drop to 3-12 overall and 2-6 in the GNAC, while Saint Joseph's extends its undefeated season to 12-0-1 overall, and 8-0-1 against league opponents.
The Lasers held the top GNAC contenders scoreless for 18 minutes, and only trailed the visitors in shots 10-7 in the first frame. Lasell had its first scoring opportunity in the 9th minute from junior Connor Wall (East Hampton, Conn.), but Blake Mullen (Manchester, Conn.) was there to make the stop. Mullen kept his nation-leading statistic of 0.00 goals against, saving all six shots faced on net.
Brett Mattos (Mahopac, N.Y.) ignited the offense in the 18th minute for the Monks, converting on a penalty kick. Mattos lined up after a hand ball in the box from Lasell, and placed the ball to the right of sophomore keeper Jackson Burhans (Berlin, N.Y.). Mattos then put the Monks up 2-0 at 31:03 when he put away a rebound from Mitchell Duncan (Sanford, Maine). Duncan's bid dinged off the crossbar and found an unmarked Mattos on the left side.
Trevor Lopes (Cumberland, R.I.) scored his seventh goal of the season just two minutes later on a quick pass, again from Duncan, as the Monks owned a 3-0 advantage heading into halftime.
Lasell outshot the Monks in the second half, but were bested by Mullen and counterpart Nicholas Seta (Hampton, N.H.). Daniel Fox (South Portland, Maine) and Noah Elmore (Berlin, Vt.) built the 5-0 lead to give the Monks their 8th conference victory.
Burhans suffered the loss in 45 minutes of work, stopping four shots on net, before Matteo Cugno (Medford, Mass.) came in for second half relief and also recorded four saves.
Lasell will host Suffolk in its last home game of the season on Tuesday, October 17 at 3:00 p.m. The Monks have a short turnaround, and face Maine Maritime tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 p.m.
