NEWTON, Mass. – One strike of the ball five minutes before the half was all there was to separate Mount Ida College and Saint Joseph's College, as the Monks came to town on Wednesday evening and handed the Mustangs a 1-0 defeat in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's soccer action at Alumni Field.
Junior Austin Bell (Gorham, Maine) sent a knuckling shot into the top corner of the net at 40:35 for his first goal of the year, beating Riley Ford (Guilderland, N.Y.), who made seven stops but was victimized for the only goal of the night.
Bell streaked down the right side of the field on a great lead pass from Ryan Buonaiuto (Scituate, R.I.), who collected the assist.
The Monks (7-1-2, 3-0 GNAC) are now unbeaten in their last eight games and have won six consecutive contests, the last four of them in shutout fashion.
Those shutouts have all been the work of sophomore goalie Blake Mullen (Manchester, Conn.), who made four saves, including attempts by Juan Brenes (Santo Domingo, D.R.) and Alexi Flores (Central Falls, R.I.).
Saint Joe's nearly opened the scoring twenty minutes into the contest, but Tyler Grothusen (Ramsey, N.J.) got on the line to stop an attempt from Brett Mattos (Mahopac, N.Y.).
This was the second straight game in which Ford and the Mustangs have conceded just one goal, but are saddled with a loss and a tie to show for their efforts.
Mount Ida (4-4-2, 1-1-1 GNAC) continues GNAC play on Saturday afternoon when they head to Rivier for a 3:30 pm against the Raiders.
Saint Joseph's enters the month of October with a 2:00 pm home game against Johnson & Wales for the top spot in the conference.