Wesleyan Blanks St. Joseph's of Maine 2-0 in NCAA Men's Soccer
Courtesy Wesleyan Sports Information
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Wesleyan University used a goal in each half and four saves from freshman keeper Adam Purdy to earn a 2-0 victory over St. Joseph’s College of Maine in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship on Saturday. Wesleyan will host Western New England College, a 1-0 winner over Babson College in a first-round contest, on Sunday.
Wesleyan opened the scoring at the 31:48 mark as freshman Chris Kuehn, who had entered the game only five minutes earlier, found the back of the net off a cross from freshman Ian Waldron. Kuehn took the pass along the left side of the box and kicked the ball off the end of his foot past St. Joseph’s junior keeper Will Pike and inside the left post for his first career goal. Waldron recorded his fourth assist of the season, tying him for the team lead with leading scorer senior Keisuke Yamashita.
Wesleyan tallied eight shots in the first half against two for St. Joseph’s, but four saves from Pike kept it a one-goal game. Pike had a key stop on a shot by Wesleyan junior Geoff Zartarian in the 21st minute as he dove to his right and deflected the ball away. Pike helped negate another Wesleyan scoring chance in the 28th minute, as he stopped a shot from close range off the right side by senior Mark Murphy. The rebound went to Waldron, who crossed it to freshman Noah Schlesinger, but his shot sailed high.
Wesleyan appeared to take a 2-0 lead early in the second half, as freshman Rory O’Neill scored off a cross from senior Jory Kahan, but the officials ruled O’Neill was offsides and disallowed the goal. Wesleyan had another scoring chance in the 58th minute, as junior Austin Woolridge took a cross from Yamashita and had a look at an open net, but his shot from the right side went right into Zartarian, who was establishing an offensive position, and deflected out of bounds.
St. Joseph’s had a pair of key opportunities of its own but was stopped by Purdy both times. In the 61st minute, junior Paul Robins sent a screaming kick low towards the left post, but Purdy dove to his right to make the stop. Robins sent another shot from the top of the box towards the left post in the 69th minute, but Purdy made a sliding stop to preserve Wesleyan’s advantage.
Wesleyan extended its lead at the 71:01 mark as senior Nick Whipple tallied his third goal of the season. Whipple took a pass from senior Woody Redpath in the middle of the box and sent it into the right side of the goal for a 2-0 lead. Redpath tallied his first point of 2009 with the assist.
Wesleyan had a chance to extend its lead to 3-0 in the 79th minute, as a corner kick by Schlesinger nearly snuck in under the crossbar, but Pike leapt up and fisted the ball out of bounds.
Pike finished with seven saves in the St. Joseph’s net, while Purdy had four to record his 10th shutout of the season. Purdy entered the weekend ranked third in Division III with a 90.9 save percentage and fourth with a 0.42 goals-against average. The shutout was also Wesleyan’s school-record 12th of the year. Wesleyan improved to 3-2 all-time in NCAA tournament play, as the Cardinals won their first-round game in both of their previous appearances in 2005 and 2006 but fell in the second round both times. With the win, Wesleyan improved to 12-1-4, while St. Joseph’s, which made its first-ever NCAA appearance, ended its season at 14-8-1.
