Men's Soccer falls 2-1 to Bears on Senior Day, await playoff fate

North Adams, MA- Bridgewater State broke open a scoreless game with two second half goals and then held off the MCLA Trailblazers late in a hard fought 2-1 MASCAC matchup at Shewcraft Field.  With the win, the Bears (7-9, 5-2 MASCAC) clinch the third seed in next week's conference tournament.  MCLA will await their playoff fate until after tomorrow's final day of the regular season.

The Trailblazers can still make the postseason tournament, but will need some help to get in.

In the season finale with the Bears, MCLA came out strong and had three chances in the games opening ten minutes of play.  Junior Florent hit the crossbar and then narrowly missed off a free kick early on to spark the offense.  Bridgewater also hit the crossbar on a David Nelson try, but the game would go into halftime scoreless.  BSU held a slim 8-5 shot advantage after the first half.

In the second half, the Bears started to wear down MCLA.  In the 52nd minute, Nelson would rip a shot from just inside the box that MCLA's Sam Edge deflected away.  BSU's Robson Montrond would corral the rebound and rip a shot into the upper right corner to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.  It was Montrond's team leading 7th goal of the season.

In the 70th minute, the Bears appeared to put the game away.  Brett Ghelfi would slip a pass to the foot of Ethan Lafontant who easily beat Edge to increase the lead to 2-0.  It was Lafontant's fourth marker of the season.

MCLA would not go quietly however.  They would finally claw their way back in the 85th minute.  After earning a corner kick, Trailblazer James Murchinson lofted a ball into the box.  Junior Florent would get control and fire a shot that BSU keeper William Russell made a sprawling save.  The rebound went up in the air and MCLA's David Jamina would head it home to slice the deficit to 2-1, still with 4:48 left to play.

Over the final few minutes, MCLA would muster up a pair of shots, but neither would threaten the Bears net.  BSU would run out the clock and earn the win.

Russell ended with 5 saves to earn the win.  Edge was saddled with the loss stopping 6 shots.

BSU owned a 20-12 shot advantage over the Trailblazers.

Should MCLA make the conference tournament, the opening round would be on Tuesday.  The full conference tournament bracket will be released tomorrow afternoon.