FRESHMEN LEAD JWU PAST MEN'S SOCCER

BOSTON, Mass. - The Johnson & Wales Men's Soccer team scored five first half goals on its way to a 7-2 win over Emmanuel College in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Clemente Field. Freshman Tucker MacPherson (Raymond, N.H.) scored twice and added an assist to lead the Wildcats to their fourth GNAC win, improving their overall record to 9-4 and 4-1 in the conference. The Saints fall to 4-8 overall and 3-2 in the GNAC with the loss.

It took just seven minutes before MacPherson took a feed from freshman Byron Arboleda (Pawtucket, R.I.) and buried his third goal of the season to open the scoring on Saturday. 

Arboleda was involved in the Wildcats' second goal, ten minutes later when he found senior Doug Kase (Clifton, N.J. for his second assist of the game. Kase picked up his second goal of the season when he beat Emmanuel senior goalkeeper James Withers (East Taunton, Mass.) at 17:24.

Emmanuel senior captain Stefano Sainato (Albany, N.Y.) cut the JWU lead in half at the 23:27 mark with his sixth goal of the season after a setup by Jordan Maurer (Florence, Mass.). Maurer earned his third assist on the play.

From there, it was all JWU moving forward. MacPherson picked up his second goal of the half and sixth of the season in the 28th minute, as Arboleda earned the assist hat-trick with his third of the day. Just three minutes after that, it was junor Xavier Carty's (Mt. Vernon, N.Y.) third goal of the season that extended the Wildcats lead to 4-1 and the visitors would add another goal in the final minute of the half when sophomore Chris Schmid (Clifton Park, N.Y.) scored his first of the year with an assist to junior Devin Walshe (Coventry, R.I.).

Emmanuel would get one back in the second half, thanks to senior captain David Field's (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) third goal of the season, but it was sandwiched between two goals by JWU freshman Andrew Vecere (Wayne, N.J.). Freshman Teagan Drake (Waterbury, Vt.) assisted on Vecere's fourth goal of the season, while MacPherson and senior Greg Kerns (Keyser, W. Va.) earned the helpers on his fifth.

In total, Johnson & Wales attempted 25 shots and put 16 of them on goal, while the Saints mustered just four shots on target after an attempted 15 shots. There were 25 fouls in the game, 14 on Emmanuel and 11 on JWU, including five yellow cards (J - Nick Tolman, Xavier Carty, Byron Arboleda; E - Connor Bradshaw, Stefano Sainato).

Senior Nick Tolman (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) made two saves for JWU, earning his seventh win of the season. He was relieved by freshman Austin Eugenio (New Bedford, Mass.) with just under 17 minutes remaining in the game.

The Wildcats look for their fifth straight victory on Monday afternoon when they host Suffolk at 1:00 p.m. Emmanuel will attempt to snap a four-game losing streak when it travels to Worcester to take on Anna Maria College on Monday at 4:00 p.m.