The Mount Ida College men's soccer team chalked up their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory this afternoon against Emerson College winning 1-0 at Mount Ida Athletic Stadium on a wet and rainy day.  The Mustangs would improve to 2-2-1 overall and 1-0-0 in conference play while the Lions (2-1-1, 0-1-0 GNAC) drop their first loss of the season. 

The action was back and forth the entire first half with the Mustangs providing the bulk of the offense on two possessions.  Mount Ida senior Matt Gill (Winfield, KS/Winfield/Garden City C.C.) had the first opportunity with a one-on-one with the Lions goaltender but could not convert the score.

Sophomore Simon Shallop (Guinea, W. Africa/International School of Conakry) would give the Mustangs another chance from the 18 yard line, but Lions keeper Nick Strauss (Norwood, MA/Norwood) made a diving save to keep it locked at 0-0 heading into halftime. 

The second half was much like the first with both sides maintaining the tie score and with chances for either team to take the advantage.  The Mustang defense was solid led by sophomore Hayato Kanesaka (Old Tappan, NJ/Northern Valley) in the sweeper position that stopped some key breakaways from happening. 

Just when it looked like the game was heading into extra time, the Mustangs would strike.  Junior midfielder Michael Concecao (Cranston, RI/Cranston East) crossed a free kick from the right side of the field into the middle of the box.  Junior Taiki Otsuka (Kanagawa-Ken, Japan/Soubudai) put his head on the ball and found the foot of senior Jean Demorcy (Jersey City, NJ/Ferris) who hammered it into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead with 2:30 remaining in the contest.  The Lions would have no answer for the surging Mustangs who rode to their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) victory of the season. 

Mount Ida goaltender Brian Leighton (Turner, ME/Leavitt Area) came up with a couple of huge saves for his squad tallying four on the day.  Strauss would also come up big for Emerson notching seven stops. 

The Mustangs will start the action back up this coming Thursday at the University of New England for non-conference play starting at 7:00 p.m.