Four Second Half Goals Lift No. 1 Southern Vermont Over No. 5 Men’s Soccer, 4-1

BENNINGTON, Vt. – Elms College sophomore defender Brendan Reed (East Longmeadow, Mass.) scored his first collegiate postseason goal, but top-seeded Southern Vermont College scored four second half goals including two by Noah Massucci (Craftsbury, Vt.) to lift the Mountaineers to a 4-1 victory over the fifth-seed Blazers in Friday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship semifinals men's soccer game at Everett Field in Bennington, Vt.

With the loss, Elms concludes its season 7-11 overall. Southern Vermont (12-4-1 overall) advances to the NECC tournament title game for the second time in two seasons and will host No. 3 Lesley University (15-4-1 overall) on Sunday, Nov. 6. The Lynx upended No. 2 Daniel Webster College (9-7-2 overall), 3-1 in the other semifinal contest to punch its ticket to Sunday's championship.

After a scoreless first half, Massucci broke the scoring drought just 20 seconds into the second frame, capitalizing on a pass from Erik Argueta (Pico Rivera, Calif.) to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead.

Southern Vermont added to its lead at the 56:46 mark when Massucci found Pierre Massena (West Milford, N.J.) who drilled the ball into the net to lift the Mountaineers' advantage to 2-0.

Ten minutes later, Reed cut Elms' deficit in half when he delivered an unassisted goal to the back of the net to set the score at 2-1 at the 66:47 mark. Two minutes later, Massucci connected with Nick Haggerty (Wynantskill, N.Y.) with a pass across the six-yard box and Haggerty struck for Southern Vermont's third score of the game to give the Mountaineers a 3-1 lead.

In the 76^th minute, Massucci capped the scoring when he blasted a one-timer cross from Brett Clatworthy (Argyle, N.Y.) to lift Southern Vermont's lead to 4-1.

The Blazers had a pair of opportunities to cut into the lead as sophomore forward Ziggy Jonathan (Springfield, Mass.) and freshman midfielder Anthony Nitri (Feeding Hills, Mass.) each fired a shot but Mountaineers' goalkeeper Connor Anniello (Scotland, Conn.) saved each shot and finished with five to help seal the victory.

After being outshot 13-4 in the opening 45 minutes, Elms responded with a flurry of shots in the second half as the Blazers owned a 14-9 shot advantage over Southern Vermont.

Elms' senior net-minder Ryan Sullivan (Agawam, Mass.) turned away five shots in the loss for the Blazers.

All-Tournament Team
MVP: Ali Sozeri
Lesley: Ari Sinanis
Lesley: Ryan Rodgers
Lesley: Christian Domingo
Southern Vermont: Greg Gilmore
Southern Vermont: Nick Haggerty
Southern Vermont: Noah Massucci
Southern Vermont: Connor Murray
Elms: Tavis Leland
Elms: Ryan Sullivan