Men’s Soccer Tops Regis College in NECC Opener, 3-0

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College had three different players score a goal and sophomore goalkeeper Christian Kostka (Oxford, Conn.) stopped all four shots he faced on target to help lift the Blazers to a 3-0 win in Saturday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's soccer game at Leary Field.

With the win, Elms improves to 3-3-0 overall, 1-0-0 in NECC action. Regis moves to 1-6-1 on the season, 0-1-0 in league play.

Elms opened the scoring in the 16^th minute of the contest when junior midfielder Conor Rieker (Agawam, Mass.) scored on a cross from senior forward Ziggy Jonathan (Springfield, Mass.) to give the Blazers a 1-0 advantage.

Elms struck again when sophomore defender Connor O'Grady (Somers, Conn.) found junior forward Joseph Coleman (Easthampton, Mass.) who made a clean run down the Regis half of the field and fired the ball into the back of the net lifting the lead to 2-0 in the 29^th minute of play.

Regis scattered three shots on target in the first 45 minutes of play but Kostka handled each one to keep Elms' lead at 2-0 at intermission.

In the second half, Elms edged the Pride in shots 6-4, and sophomore defender Richard Vanasse (Somers, Conn.) found the back of the net on a free kick service from Connor O'Grady in the 66^th minute to increase the edge to 3-0.

Kostka needed just one save in the second half to complete the shutout win. Regis net-minder Stefan Todorovic (Los Angeles, Calif.) made four saves of his own including three in the first half.

Christian Mukala (Malden, Mass.) took five shots, with one on target to lead the Pride in defeat.

Elms returns to non-conference action on Tuesday, September 24 when it hosts Westfield State University at 7:00 p.m. at Leary Field.