Cambridge, Mass— The Lesley University Men's Soccer team hosted Newbury College in an NECC battle at Edwards Field Saturday Night. From the first touch of the match it was a back and forth aggressive match, but in the end the Lynx were able to prevail over the Nighthawks 1-0. With the loss, Newbury falls to 3-9 (1-2 NECC) and the Lynx improve to 5-6-1 overall and 1-1 in the NECC.
Lesley broke the deadlock in the 28th minute of play when Sophomore Tiago Pacheco (Cranston, RI) headed a loose ball to the top of the eighteen and found the racing Anthony Vitta (Oceanside, NY) charging towards the sliding goalie and one touched it past him for the lead.
Lesley held the advantage in shots 8-3 in the first half and corners 6-0, but couldn't capitalize on their opportunities. "We did enough to win," said head coach James Costa. "We had numerous opportunities to score. We just didn't put it away and made it a little bit more difficult on ourselves than it should have been."
Stellar defense by Senior Wilton Zuo (Dorcester, MA) broke up a couple of breakaways in the last few minutes of the first half to help keep the nighthawks off the board.
Lesley continued to outshoot the nighthawks 10-5 in the second half but was unable to hit the frame on many of the attempts. Senior Goaltender James Webb (San Francisco, CA) made key saves for the Lynx in the final ten minutes of the match, including two full extension dives and a couple just tipping over the crossbar. Newbury held the advantage in corners 5-2 in the second half due to Webb's stellar goal tending, but Webb and the Lynx defense kept the Nighthawks off the board.
"He came up big for us on a couple of occasions, one being on a corner kick," said Costa on Webb. "He made a fantastic stop. We shouldn't have given it up but that's what keepers do, they save us when we need it and he did it tonight-it was great."
Lesley has a full week of rest before they host Elms College in another NECC match up Saturday October, 14th at 3:30pm. Newbury next hosts Husson on Tuesday October, 10th for non-conference action.
