North Adams, Mass. – The Albertus Magnus College men's soccer team closed out the 2016 regular season with a 5-1 setback against MCLA in non-conference action on Tuesday evening at Shewcraft Field.
The Falcons (9-7-1) dropped their second straight overall and second in a row to the Trailblazers (8-6-1) after MCLA blanked AMC in last season's regular season finale. Albertus Magnus will be looking to make a run similar to last fall that saw them win a pair of road games and advance to the conference title game.
The hosts opened the scoring late in the first half as Anthony Basile converted a feed from Khalil Kareh for the first of his hour markers on the day. Basile's strike came in the 42nd minute and beat Albertus Magnus sophomore goalkeeper Joe Russo (North Haven, Conn.).
In the second half, the Trailblazers blew the game open with three goals in the first five minutes. Basile had a pair and Edward Boateng's seventh of the year gave MCLA a 4-0 edge in the 50th minute. All of the Trailblazer goals came against AMC sophomore netminder Nick Cappiello (Hamden, Conn.) in his first action of the season.
Albertus Magnus got on the board and the cut the deficit to three goals at 4-1 in the 54 minute courtesy of the team-leading seventh strike of the season for senior midfielder Matt Mueller (Cheshire, Conn.). Mueller's 15th career tally came off a feed from sophomore midfielder Kaj Djonne (Sandy Hook, Conn.). Mueller has now found the back of the net in three of the team's last four games.
MCLA closed out the scoring late in regulation as Basile broke through for his fourth goal of the game with under 10 minutes remaining.
Mueller and freshman defender Anjel Dominguez (Wallingford, Conn.) took a team-high three shots apiece for the visitors, while seniors Alex Zapata (Hamden, Conn.), Milton Calderon (New Haven, Conn.) and Djonne all had two shots.
In net, Russo turned aside four saves during the first half in a losing effort for the Falcons. In relief of Russo, Cappiello made one save. On the opposite end, Kamron Anderson stopped four of the five shots he faced en route to his eighth win of the year.
Albertus Magnus returns to action on Saturday, October 29, traveling to face No. 4 seed Suffolk in the opening round of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Tournament. The contest is slated to begin at 1:00 pm as the fifth-seeded Falcons are looking to avenge a 1-0 setback to the Rams earlier this season in the Elm City.
For the latest information on the men's soccer team and Albertus Magnus athletics, follow AMCAthletics on Twitter and visit AlbertusFalcons.com.
