Men’s Soccer Upends MIT, 3-0

EAST BOSTON – After a scoreless first half, Suffolk men's soccer put away three unanswered goals to take down MIT, 3-0, Wednesday night at James A. Sartori Stadium at East Boston Memorial Park. The win marks the Rams' second-ever over the Engineers in program history.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 3 | MIT 0
RECORDS: Suffolk (6-2-2) | MIT (5-5-0)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk wasted little time in the second stanza to eliminate the scoreless game. Off a throw in, Matteo Simonini's initial attempt on target was denied by Lukas Hason-Puffer. The Engineers netminder fell to the pitch to stop Simonini's shot and luckily the Rams' sophomore picked up his own rebound and quickly fired his second shot, this time finding the back of the net to put the first tick on the board at the 48:40-minute mark.  

Less than two minutes later, Suffolk extended the margin to a pair. Carter Van Buskirk intercepted a goal kick at the 20-yard line and did a give-and go with Taj Jensen towards MIT's net. Jensen split two defenders and kept his shot low on the turf and it zoomed past Hason-Puffer to make it a 2-0 Suffolk score in the 51ST minute.  

Jensen had a hand in the third goal of the game that came just about 10 minutes later. This time, he picked up the pieces off the Engineers goal kick, slid a go-ahead pass to Damon Smargon, who drew the defense towards the left side of the field. Once MIT shifted, Smargon attacked, sending the ball to the back of the opposite side of the net.  

NETMINDER NOTES

• Xander Balog stopped the one shot he faced. 
• Hason-Puffer registered four saves.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Jense contributed one goal and one assist. 
• Simonini and Smargon both scored one goal. 
• Van Buskirk supplied one assist. 
• Both teams had 11 shots. 
• The Rams put seven attempts on target, while the Engineers were limited to one shot on net. 
• MIT took more corners than the blue-and-gold, 6-1.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk defeated MIT for the second time in program history, first since 2017. 
• The Rams moved to 2-5-1 all-time against the 
• Seven meetings between Suffolk and MIT have been determined via shutout. Both of the Rams victories over the Engineers are cleansheets. 
• The three goals scored are the most by the Rams in a single game versus MIT all-time. 
• Suffolk scored its first goals in the Bill Maddock era versus MIT. 
• The Rams entertained the Engineers in Eastie for the first time. 
• The blue-and-gold moved to 1-1-0 all-time against MIT with Maddock on the sidelines.
• Suffolk has shutout its last three opponents.
• The Rams have kept five foes off the scoreboard this year thus far. 
• Jensen logged a new career-high in points (3) and netted his first collegiate goal. 
• Simonini netted his first goal as a Ram. 
• Smargon recorded his second goal of the year.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk concludes its three-match home stay Saturday, Oct. 1 with a Breast Cancer Awareness game against CCC foe Roger Williams at 12 p.m.