Men's Soccer blanked by Saint Joseph's College

(Standish, Maine) The Rivier University Men's Soccer team dropped a tough Great Northeast Athletic Conference road contest this afternoon to Saint Joseph's College, 3-0. The loss is the Raiders' 9th of the season as they are now 2-9-1 and now have a 1-4-1 GNAC mark. Saint Joseph's meanwhile improves to 10-4-1 overall and are perfect in the GNAC at 6-0-0.

Saint Joseph's controlled the pace of play for the vast majority of the conference contest and held a 28-3 shots advantage on the afternoon. Senior Fabrice Iraduha (Portland, Maine) potted a pair of goals while Kyle Shangraw (Westbrook, Maine) added a marker and a helper in the shutout triumph.

Shangraw opened the game scoring at the 31:54 mark, when the senior sniper drove home his GNAC-leading 13th goal of the season and sixth game-winner of the 2013 campaign. After collecting a slick lead pass from freshman Victor Santos (Framingham, Mass.), Shangraw found himself with some room to maneuver and, from about 30 yards out, unleashed a rocket to the top left corner to provide his team with 1-0 edge.

The margin held true until the 63rd minute when Iraduha netted his first of two tallies in the victory. Shangraw, dribbling through defenders while advancing into the box, led his classmate with a perfect thread-the-needle lead pass and Iraduha finished the play with an easy kick to the right corner, making it a 2-0 game with 27:23 left to play.

Iraduha provided his team with additional breathing room in the 83rd minute when he tapped in a shot following a scramble in the goal crease.

In net, sophomore keeper Scott Benner (Post Falls, Idaho) made one save to notch his third shutout of the year while his counterpart, Rivier freshman Gary Archambault (Auburn, N.H.), tallied 11 stops in a losing effort.

With the win, Saint Joseph's improves to 6-2-1 in the history of the series with Rivier University. The Monks have now defeated the Raiders in six consecutive meetings dating back to the 2008 campaign.

Saint Joseph's returns to the pitch on Saturday when the Monks travel to Providence for a GNAC showdown with Johnson & Wales University at 3:30 PM. Rivier plays at Norwich University at 8:00 PM on Friday.