Men's Soccer Drops GNAC Opener to #25 Saint Joseph's Maine

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - In the first-ever official men's athletic contest held on the campus of the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), the USJ men's soccer team was dealt a 5-0 setback by the nationally ranked Saint Joseph College of Maine Monks on Saturday afternoon at the USJ Soccer Field. The match also served as the Blue Jays and No. 25 Monks Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opener, as USJ now slides to 2-1-0 overall and 0-1-0 in the league on the year, while SJC improves to 4-0-0 and 1-0-0. The USJ men's soccer team will return back to the pitch next on Tuesday at home versus Fisher College for a 5:00 p.m. kickoff.

Monks' senior forward Brett Mattos (Mahopac, N.Y.) opened the game's scoring at the 8:31 mark when he found the back of the net off a corner kick and became the first SJC men's soccer player to score 100 career points with the tally. The four-year standout proceeded to net his second strike of the afternoon 17 minutes later to lift the visitors to a 2-0 lead.

The two-score cushion remained until junior defender Ryan Buonaiuto (Scituate, R.I.) potted his third goal of the season just 55 seconds into the second stanza and the Monks benefited from a USJ own goal in the 82nd minute to collect a 4-0 advantage. Freshman midfielder Jason Umbehr (Wallingford, Conn.) scored his first NCAA goal in the 89th minute, off an Austin Ward (North Andover, Mass.) feed, to conclude the scoring and account for the 5-0 final.

SJC's senior keeper Blake Mullen (Manchester, Conn.) and sophomore David Walbridge (Hampden, Mass.) went untested in the shutout victory, while USJ freshman goalie Anes Gadun (Clinton, Conn.) made four stops in a losing effort. Mullen improves to 4-0-0 on the season for the Monks and Gadun suffers his first career loss between the pipes for USJ to drop to 2-1-0.

The No. 25 Monks held sizeable advantages in shots (25-2), shots on goal (9-0), and corner kicks (8-2) on the afternoon. Junior midfielder Cody Elliott (Gorham, Maine) was credited with a pair of assists, while Mattos has now scored two or more goals in a game 13 times in his collegiate career.

Today's contest marked the first-ever meeting between the Monks and Blue Jays in men's soccer action, as the University of Saint Joseph transitioned to a fully coeducational institution this past fall. The 5-0 victory over USJ extended the Monks' GNAC regular season undefeated streak to 21 games as the team's last conference loss was a 2-0 setback at the hands of Lasell College on October 21st, 2015.

Up Next
The USJ men's soccer team will return back to the pitch next on Tuesday at home versus Fisher College for a 5:00 p.m. kickoff.

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