Lyndonville, VT - The Northern Vermont University-Lyndon men's soccer team celebrated the careers of their four seniors with a thrilling 1-0 North Atlantic Conference victory over the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday afternoon.  With the win, the Hornets picked up their first NAC victory of the season, and their first since a 4-3 win over UMPI on September 22, 2018, and improved to 2-11-1 overall.  UMPI fell to 3-9-2 on the season and 3-6 in conference.

Lyndon bent but didn't break all afternoon.  UMPI unleashed 13 shots in the first 28 minutes, but Hornet goalkeeper Brett Roy (Newport, VT) came up with several big stops to keep the game scoreless.  Then in the 29th minute, Lyndon capitalized on their first scoring opportunity, as Gilbert Flores (Winstead, CT) headed a beautiful cross from Garrick Webster (Terryville, CT) past UMPI keeper Kobe West and into the upper left corner of the net.

UMPI had a golden opportunity to tie things less than a minute later after Lyndon was called for a foul in the box.  Roy came up huge, however, and turned away Diego Vega's penalty kick, preserving Lyndon's one-goal advantage.  The Owls kept the pressure on the rest of the half, outshooting the Hornets, 23-2 in the stanza.  The Hornets were able to keep the Owls off the scoreboard, however, and took the 1-0 lead into halftime.

The second half was more of the same, with UMPI keeping up the pressure, trying to get the equalizer.  Roy and the Hornet defense were up to the challenge, however.  Then in the 61st minute, the Hornets suddenly had a great opportunity to extend the lead when UMPI was called for a foul in the box when Flores got behind the Owl defense.  This time it was West who came up big in the net, as he denied Lyndon's Matthew Condon's (East Bridgewater, MA) penalty kick.

The Hornets adopted a defensive posture over the final minutes and were able to keep the Owls scoreless and emerge with the win.

UMPI dominated the contest by the numbers, outshooting Lyndon 44-4 for the game, possessing the ball 65% of the time, and earning 10 corner kicks to three for Lyndon.  But the Hornets had the advantage in the one place that mattered most, the scoreboard, thanks in large part to a brilliant performance by Roy.  He finished with a season high 14 saves, many of the spectacular variety, and recorded the clean sheet.  West made two stops for UMPI.

Prior to the start of the game, the Hornets honored their four seniors, Condon, Quinlan Peer (Saranac Lake, NY), Javen Reinhardt (Savoy, MA), and Webster.  Each was joined on the field by family and friends.  The Lyndon athletic family thanke them for their contributions to the program and wishes them the bet in their futures.

Lyndon will close the season on Tuesday afternoon when they host Plymouth State University in a non-conference matchup.  Game time is 3:00 pm.