WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Saint Joseph's College (1-0-1, 1-0-0 GNAC) defeated University of Saint Joseph (2-1-0, 0-1-0 GNAC), 2-0, in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's soccer action on Friday evening.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

After a scoreless first half, the Monks managed to jump ahead with a lucky bounce in the 61st minute, when a well-placed corner kick off the foot of graduate Colin Grant (Harvard, Mass.) was headed on target by freshman Gus Ford (Falmouth, Maine). The ball bounced off two USJ players and ricocheted into the bottom right corner of the net.

St. Joe's doubled their lead just over a minute later, when senior Michael Wildes (Winslow, Maine) knocked home a header off another well-executed corner taken by Grant.

The Blue Jays mounted an impressive offensive attack late with a series of three shots in the closing minutes, but the SJC defense proved up to the task to cement the shutout victory.

TEAM STATS:

The Monks held the lead in shots (15-13), shots on goal (8-4), and corner kicks (9-3) in the 2021 conference opener.

THE KEEPERS:

SJC graduate David Walbridge (Hampden, Mass.) made four saves to earn his ninth career shutout while USJ netminder Jose Miguel Garcia Martin turned away six of the eight shots he faced in a losing effort.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:

With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 3-0-0 in the history of the series with University of Saint Joseph. The Monks have outscored the Blue Jays by a combined 10-0 score in the three matchups.

NEXT!

Saint Joseph's returns to action on Tuesday when the Monks travel to Worcester for a 7:00 PM non-conference contest with WPI.

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