Men’s Soccer Falls to Williams College, 4-0

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Elms College sophomore net-minder Christian Kostka (Oxford, Conn.) made 10 saves, but three second-half scores helped lift Williams College to a 4-0 win over the Blazers in Saturday afternoon's NCAA Division III Championship first round men's soccer game at Cole Field in Williamstown, Mass.

With the loss, Elms concludes its season 11-9-0 overall, while Williams improves to 12-6 on the season and advances to the second round of the NCAA tournament to face Western New England University on Sunday afternoon.

Williams controlled the run of play for much of the first half but Kostka was stellar between the pipes notching eight of his 10 saves in the first stanza.

The Ephs broke through in the 21^st minute when Matt Kastner (Mendham, N.J.) headed the ball into the net following a corner kick taken by Chris Conder (London, England) and flicked on by Luke Pierce (Yarmouth, Maine) to give Williams a 1-0 advantage which it held until halftime.

Conder picked up his second assist at the 51:31 mark when he played a ball to Jonathan Westling (Sudbury, Mass.) who finished with a strike into the nylon to lift the Ephs' lead to 2-0. Nine minutes later, Malcolm Moutenot (Nashville, Tenn.) added Williams' third tally, and with 19 minutes to play, Dan Lima (Naugatuck, Conn.) scored an unassisted goal to give the Ephs a 4-0 win.

Elms' sophomore midfielder Safa Saady (Baghdad, Iraq) fired the Blazers' only shot in the first half which sailed wide of target.

The Blazers applied pressure in the second frame as senior forward Ziggy Jonathan (Springfield, Mass.) added two shots, while sophomore defenders Connor O'Grady (Somers, Conn.) and Joe Pellegrini (Somers, Conn.) blasted a shot apiece. Connor O'Grady also prevented a Williams goal late in the second half when he cleared the ball off the Blazers' goal line to keep the score at 4-0.

The Ephs fired 15 shots on goal and held Elms to zero shots on target.