Men's Soccer Falls to Monks 1-0 in Overtime Heartbreaker

PAXTON, Mass.—Sophomore Victor Santos (Framingham, Mass.) scored two minutes and 31 seconds into the second overtime period to break open a scoreless game and give the Saint Joseph's College Monks a 1-0 win against the AMCATS of Anna Maria College on Saturday afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action.

With the loss, the host AMCATS fall to 1-6 overall and 0-2 in GNAC play, while the win boosts the Monks to 2-8 overall and 1-1 in GNAC play.

After over 100 minutes of scoreless soccer, the Monks were awarded a free-kick a few paces outside of the 18-yard box. Junior Nate Fox (South Portland, Maine) took the kick and passed wide to Garrett Darnell (Gray, Maine), positioned in the left corner. Darnell crossed the ball low in front of the goal line, where Santos slid in to place the ball past the outstretched arms of AMCATS' goalkeeper Patrick Thornberg (Wayland, Mass.).

The goal broke open an otherwise evenly-matched contest that saw regulation end with a three-shot advantage for the Monks, 19-16. Both teams took two shots in overtime, but the Monks found the back of the net first.

The final 11 minutes of regulation saw scoring opportunities for both teams, but neither was able to convert. Santos had chances to put the Monks on the board at the 11-minute mark and again with 8:35 left to play as he had open looks at the net, but Thornburg made a diving save on the first attempt and Santos misfired right at Thornburg on the next attempt.

With 3:07 left to play in regulation, Anna Maria's Christopher Mattoli (Sturbridge, Mass.) capitalized on a defensive misplay to have an open shot inside the 18-yard box, but his shot went wide.

Thornberg totaled eight saves in net for the AMCATS, while Saint Joseph's netminder Scott Benner (Post Falls, Idaho) also finished with eight saves in the win.

Anna Maria returns to action on Wednesday, September 24^th when it travels to Massachusetts Maritime for a 7:00 p.m. non-conference game.