Men's Soccer Sinks Mariners

Chris Kendrick (@CKendrick86)

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Elms College men's soccer squad registered a 3-1 victory over visiting Mitchell College in their 2016 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opener at Leary Field Saturday evening. The Blazers improve to 1-7 overall, and 1-0 in NECC play, while the Mariners drop to 0-1 league play, and 0-5-1 on the season.

Elms broke a scoreless tie in the 22^nd minute as junior Donald Whittle (Somers, Conn.) fired home a feed from senior Scott Labrie (Southampton, Mass.) to stake the Blazers to a 1-0 lead. Elms suffered a setback at the 24:46 mark as a cross from the Mariners ricocheted off a Blazers' defender and past Elms freshman goalkeeper Tyler Graves (Monson, Mass.) to even the match at 1-1. The score remained intact heading into halftime.

The Blazers regained control in the 69^th minute as sophomore Shaquille Robinson (New York, N.Y.) converted off a pass from classmate Colby Macdonald (Bristol, Conn.) to hand Elms a 2-1 advantage. Less than a minute later, Whittle raced through the Mariners defense and delivered an unassisted strike past Mariners freshman keeper Seth Strader (Preston, Conn.) to push the Blazers lead to 3-1.

Mitchell chipped away at the Elms cushion with seven minutes remaining as sophomore Christian Tomaj (Stamford, Conn.) placed a shot past Graves to make it a 3-2 game. The Blazers held the Mariners off the board in the final minutes to preserve the 3-2 victory.

The Blazers controlled the shot column, 22-11, during the contest. Graves stopped eight shots in the win, while Strader made a match-high nine saves for Mitchell.

The Blazers will look to remain in the win column with a non-conference road trip to Westfield State Tuesday night for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff. Mitchell travels to Coast Guard for a non-conference tilt Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m.

ELMS SOCCER