'On This Day' Men’s Soccer Team Clinches Playoff Spot on Senior Day
'On This Day' is a Wells College Athletics feature series taking a look back on events that occurred on this day, Oct. 23, four years ago in 2016.
The Wells College men's soccer team honored its seniors and kept up its stellar defensive work with a 4-0 win over Bryn Athyn College on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016, at the Wells Turf Field. Wells scored twice in each half and improved to 10-3-3 overall and 8-2-2 in the North Eastern Athletic Conference.
Additionally, Wells moved into third place in the NEAC standings with 26 points and clinched a berth in the conference playoffs with one regular-season game remaining. The top seven teams in the conference earn playoff spots.
Prior to the match, five Wells College seniors were honored – Richie Martino, Jesse Constantino, Tyler Adams, Hunter Sowersby, and Marshall Kaplan. Four of the seniors recorded at least one point in the match, with Martino and Sowersby scoring second-half goals and Kaplan and Adams adding assists.
The Express opened the scoring in the 23rd minute of the match when Carlos Valdivieso corralled a ball at the top of the penalty area and moved the ball forward to Christian Garavito who turned and scored from close range near the right post.
The lead doubled just before halftime when Tyler Adams lofted a perfect pass over the Bryn Athyn defense to Junger Vargas, who calmly left-footed a shot across the face of goal inside the right post.
Wells added two more goals after halftime, with Martino scoring his first goal of the season. A Bryn Athyn foul near the midfield circle awarded a free kick to the Express, and Marshall Kaplan chipped a long pass over the left side of the defense where Martino ran on and fired a shot under the crossbar. The final goal was a shot from the right side across the net by Sowersby.
Owen May made five shots to earn the shutout, his seventh shutout of the year and 11th of his career. He has three consecutive shutouts and has not conceded a goal in 329 minutes, 28 seconds. With seven shutouts on the year, May has tied the single-season program record set in 2014 by Michael Sciotti.
Boxscore: https://www.wells-express.com/sports/msoc/2016-17/boxscores/20161023_ilbe.xml
