Castleton earns shutout win over Maine Maritime

Castleton, VT - The Castleton State College men’s soccer team picked up a pivotal North Atlantic Conference (NAC) win over Maine Maritime Academy 1-0 Saturday afternoon at Spartan Stadium.

With the win Castleton improves to 7-5-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play, while Maine Maritime falls to 5-5-1, 1-2 in NAC competition.

Chris Mulholland (Ridgefield Park, NJ) scored the lone goal of the contest in the 36th minute of play off a Jacob Ferry (Warwick, RI) assist. Ferry played a ball from midfield perfectly splitting two defenders to Mulholland in stride. The junior midfielder took two touches to create space and beat Mariner keeper Jeff Butland (Cumberland, ME) low to the far-side post for what proved to be the game winner.

Castleton maintained pressure throughout the first half, narrowly missing several chances to put an insurance marker on the board. Butland turned away three of his five shots in the first half. Several times, however, Butland was forced to come out and take balls out of the air as the Spartans applied pressure in the offensive zone.

The second half was much more evenly played, and the Mariners sustained a solid attack for much of the final 25 minutes of play. Maine Maritime had five corner kicks in the second half, including three consecutive as Castleton struggled to clear the Mariner offensive advances. Mike Anthony (Darmouth, MA) made three saves, all in the second half, to earn his fourth shutout of the season.

Both teams return to conference play tomorrow at 2:00 pm. Maine Maritime travels to Green Mountain College, while the Spartans play host to Husson University in a re-match of the previous two NAC Championship games, of which Castleton has won both.