MIT Slips Past Men's Soccer

Springfield, Mass. - September 24, 2022 - The Springfield College men's soccer program fell short of MIT on Saturday afternoon at Brock-Affleck Field, 3-2, in NEWMAC play.

Springfield is now 1-4-2 on the year, with a 0-2 record in league play. The Engineers are now 5-4 with a 2-0 NEWMAC record. MIT outshot Springfield, 27-11 and each team had six corner kicks in the game. 

Despite the setback, Clayton Knibbs (Madison, Conn.) put together a gutsy performance in the cage with 12 saves, nine of which came in the first half. 

Knibbs set the tone early for the Pride defensively, making a pair of diving saves to push back the Engineers' scoring chances early in the contest. At 12:21, the Pride set up a corner that was rolled to Jack Habersaat (Boxborough, Mass.), who lifted a cross to Martin McDermott (Pearl River, N.Y.) as the first-year leaped above the crowd to head in the attempt to put Springfield ahead 1-0. The Engineers could not get past Knibbs as the senior collected three more impressives saves in a row with the latter coming at 18:38 as Knibbs dove down to his right to bat out a try from Will Seiple. At 22:44, the Pride went back to McDermott off the corner to put in his second goal of the game, yet the ball rang off the post to keep it at just a one goal contest. MIT continued its hunt for a tying goal by unloading seven shots in the final fifteen minutes of the frame. Knibbs continued his impressive half directing the defense and collected five saves, while the backline stood in front of another shot to allow the Pride to go into the stoppage up by a score.

The Engineers jumped ahead in the second half off three unanswered goals that snuck to allow MIT to take the lead at 3-1. In the 71st-minute, Desani intercepted a free kick and looked to clear the ball, however Springfield kept the pressure on, which allowed Chris Cruz (Greenwich, Conn.) to track down the ball and punch in the goal to trim the score down to a 3-2 margin. Cruz had another chance to tie the game as the senior broke away for a one-on-one, but Desani poked it away to help hold on to the slight lead. The Pride quieted the MIT attack, while still looking for the tying goal. Springfield received chances from Brandon Trent (Commack, N.Y.) at 83:48 and from Jack Rosenberg (Simsbury, Conn.) in the waning seconds of the game, however both went just wide to let the Engineers squeak by with the win. 

Springfield returns to non-conference action this week with a Tuesday night match against Framingham State.