Standish, Maine – The Albertus Magnus College men's soccer team dropped a road Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tilt versus Saint Joseph's (Me.), 3-0, on Saturday afternoon in wet and windy conditions at Westerlea Way Field.
Freshman forward Brett Mattos (Mahopac, N.Y.) scored twice to help launch the Monks past the Falcons.
With the loss, Albertus Magnus moves to 6-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play, while Saint Joseph's improves to 6-3-1 on the fall and 2-1 in league action.
Mattos netted his sixth goal of the season at the 15:18 mark of the first half, as the rookie standout scored off an Austin Bell (Gorham, Maine) feed to put the hosts up 1-0. With an open lane, Bell delivered a through pass into the box that appeared to be cut off by Falcons sophomore Griffin Volta (Orange, Conn.), but the ball squirted free and Mattos was in position to tap it into a wide open goal.
As it played out, the Mattos marker – his second game-clincher of the season - proved to be all the offense Saint Joseph's would require. The Monks tacked on a pair of goals in the second stanza, with junior Sean Baker (Medfield, Mass.) and Mattos scoring off Johnny Thomas (Boston, Mass.) and Kartikeya Swarup (Delhi, India) passes in the 53rd and 75th minutes, respectively.
Each team took 13 shots in the game, as the Monks capitalized on their opportunities and the Falcons could not break through. Saint Joseph's took six corners in the game compared to just one for Albertus Magnus.
Between the pipes, Volta made three saves in a losing effort. On the opposite end, Scott Benner stopped all four shots he faced to record the shutout for the Monks.
Senior midfielder Jesse Plona (Trumbull, Conn.) had a team-leading two shots on goal for the Falcons, while junior midfielder Matt Mueller (Cheshire, Conn.), classmate Ben Colter (Guilford, Conn.) and forward Alexis Garcia-Romero (West Haven, Conn.) all had one shot on target. Garcia-Romero's blast in the 17th minute clanged off the post and was the best scoring chance the Falcons had all afternoon.
The physical contest saw 24 fouls whistled and one caution handed out to the visitors.
The Falcons return to action on Tuesday, October 6 with a home non-conference clash against in-state rival Coast Guard.
