Ephs beat Castleton 4-0, remain unbeaten

Box Score

CASTLETON, VT - The Williams College men's soccer team extended their win streak to seven games with a 4-0 drubbing of Castleton College in nonconference play Wednesday evening at Spartan Stadium.

The victory keeps the Ephs, ranked #1 in the NSCAA New England rankings and #7 nationally, undefeated as they improve to 7-0-1 (3-0-1 NESCAC). With the loss Castleton falls to 6-5-1.

The Ephs showed no signs of wear and tear as they rounded out their five game road trip, wherein they recorded an impressive 16-3 margin in goals scored to goals allowed. The Ephs remained hot offensively, blasting the Spartan net with 27 shots while allowing just seven and earned five corners while giving up just two.

Conner Smith led the offense with a pair of scores just five minutes apart in the second half, while goal keeper Andrew Graham recorded one save en route to earning the win.

Williams took the early 1-0 advantage thanks to a Charles Romero goal in the 18th minute. Romero broke through two Spartan defenders and struck a ball to the lower left corner for his fifth goal of the season.

The Ephs exploded for three scores in the first 18 minutes of the second half. The first came when Will Whiston was able to use his head to redirect a rebound off the post past Castleton keeper Mike Anthony (6 saves) for his third of the season. Conor Smith tacked on a pair of insurance tallies in the 58th and 63rd minute of play off of assists from Joe Vella and Gaston Kelly respectively. For Kelly, it was his eighth assist in the Ephs first eight games.

The Spartans nearly got on the board in the 27^th minute when Eph keeper Andrew Lyons-Berg, playing in relief of Graham, found himself all alone with Castleton forward Sean Fitzgerald in the box. However, despite eluding Lyons-Berg, Fitzgerald's attempt missed wide right and preserved the Williams shutout.

Williams returns to action at 1:00 PM Saturday, October 10^th, when they host Bates in a New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) show-down. Bates enters the contest with a 1-0-1 record over their last two games and an overall record of 2-4-1 (0-2-1 NESCAC).