Raiders Bested by Pilgrims; 2-1

Nashua, NH – The New England College Pilgrims defeated the Rivier College Raiders tonight in men's soccer action, 2-1. The Raiders were outshot 27-10 throughout the night as NEC controlled the tempo of the game for most of the night.

After a quiet start to the night, Pilgrims freshman Isma Mugenyi (Haverhill, MA) put NEC on the board with just under 10 minutes to play in the first half. A pass from sophomore Paul McLean (E. Hartford, CT) led Mugenyi into the box where he was able to beat Rivier keeper John Jarvis (Henniker, NH) from the right side.

It wasn't long into the second half when the Pilgrims scored again, this time off a sprint down the left side, where Sean Walsh (Kingston, MA) was the recipient of a blast from teammate Aaron Kolb (New Durham, NH). Walsh redirected the blast and it jumped past Jarvis to put NEC up 2-0.

The Raiders lone goal came off a penalty kick with 13 minutes left in the game. A foul inside the goal box by the Pilgrims on Raiders forward Carl Ghannad (Salem, NH) set up the penalty kick by senior captain Chris Nugent (Camberley, United Kingdom) who placed the ball into the lower right corner for the goal.

NEC starting goal keeper, senior Pat Harkin (Scituate, RI), made 1 save before coming out of the game after a head to head collision with Rivier's Joe Granato (Arlington, MA) on a loose ball outside of the goal box. Harkin's replacement, freshman Robert Millard, made 3 saves and allowed 1 goal in the win after coming in near the 20 minute mark in the first half. Jarvis recorded 9 saves for the Raiders and gave up 2 goals in the defeat.

Both teams will play their first respective conference games on Saturday, September 11th. The Raiders will travel to Johnson & Wales University for a 3:00 PM GNAC game, while New England College will go to Western New England College to play a TCCC game at 11:00 AM.