By: Jon Santer
Assistant Sports Editor
Behind goals from sophomore Kevin Nowak and freshman Ryan McAdoo, the Springfield College Men’s Soccer team defeat the Coast Guard Academy Bears 2-0 at Hartwell-Rogers Field at Babson College. With the win, the Pride will advance to play MIT in the NEWMAC Championship on Sunday. Prior to Springfield’s game, the Engineers advanced past top seeded Babson 5-4 in penalty kicks.
Just as they have done in the past few games, Springfield got off to a strong start. In the 20th minute, junior centre-back Drew Vanasse got a ball up into the gusting wind off of a free kick from half-field.
As the ball floated in the air, classmate Michael Fowler one touched it to a waiting Nowak on the back post. From point blank range, Nowak fired the ball into the top of the net past Coast Guard goalkeeper Richie Burns.
In front of the goal, Kevin is dangerous,” said coach Steffen Siebert. “He showed that again today. It was a great pass from Michael Fowler, but again the whole team contributed to that goal.”
Back and forth play for the remainder of the first half allowed Springfield freshman goalkeeper Billy Schmid to show off his talents in the cage. Finishing with four saves on the day, the relative of long time Springfield coach Irv Schmid recorded his second collegiate shutout.
I think we did a really good job,” said a confident Schmid. “For the most part it was really organized and that what we pride ourselves on is being the most organized team in the conference. The hard work, video sessions and practice have showed and it came out on the field and helped put up the zero.
In the 71st minute, a through ball sent the speedy Fowler in past the Coast Guard defense. Racing to the ball, the striker was tripped up by a sliding Burns and immediately the referee pointed to the middle of the box, signaling a penalty kick.
Freshman Ryan McAdoo stepped up and fired it past Burns to give the Pride a 2-0 advantage going into the last minutes of the contest.
I thought today was a great team effort,” said Siebert. We played a lot of guys today, Billy had his best game of his young career, but it was a whole team effort.”