MIT men’s soccer seeded first in this year’s tournament
Team claims NEWMAC regular season championship once again
The MIT men’s soccer team, ranked No. 21 in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll, claimed its fifth New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season championship with a 3-2 victory over Springfield College at Brock-Affleck Field.
Sean D. Bingham ’16 paced the Engineers offense with a pair of goals, his team leading and conference leading 15th and 16th of the season, respectively. Joe P. Schuman ’16 notched his second marker of the season, while Austin E. Freel ’16 had one assist in the winning effort.
Pride freshman Christian Schneider got Springfield on the board four minutes into the contest. Schneider took a pass from junior Luke Alvaro and floated a shot over the head of MIT goalkeeper Jake L. Amereno ’16 and into the right side of the net to give the hosts an early 1-0 lead.
The Engineers responded quickly when Bingham took a pass from Wesley M. Woo ’19 and placed a shot past Springfield senior goalie Billy Schmid to make the score 1-1 with 29:50 to play in the opening half.
Bingham later registered his league-leading 16th goal of the season after he collected the ball and found the back of the net to give the Engineers a 2-1 lead heading into the halftime break.
Back-and-forth play highlighted the beginning of the second stanza until the Cardinal and Gray took a two goal lead over the Pride with 20:46 left to play. Freel played in a corner kick that snuck its way across the goal-mouth, only to be contained by Schuman, who tapped it in past Schmid to put MIT up 3-1.
Springfield freshman Alex Haji scored with 10:01 remaining in the contest to cut the Pride’s deficit to one, but it wasn’t enough as the Engineers held on for the eventual 3-2 victory.
Amereno made a pair of saves as his record moved to 12-1-1 in the win for the Engineers, while Schmid finished the game with two stops for the Pride. MIT held a 12-10 advantage in shots and a 8-6 differential in corner kicks.