New London, Connecticut - The United States Coast Guard Academy's Men Soccer team erupted on Wednesday evening, tallying a season high seven goals against cross-town opponent, Mitchell College. 

Led by a hat trick from John DiTommaso, the Bears showed no signs of slowing down their offensive onslaught. In fact, it was the senior class shepherding in the underclassmen and demonstrating how to capitalize on opportunities. Seniors DiTomasso, Noah Engstrom, and Casey Savage each scored multiple goals, totaling the seven put up by Coast Guard on the evening. 

DiTommaso, the hero from the Bears'-King's Point rivalry game earlier this season, got the scoring started with back-to-back goals in the 10th minute (from Aidan Miles) and 24th minute (from Michael O'Brien) of the first half. He would deliver an unassisted ball to the back of the net to open up the scoring in the second half, as well, coming just over five minutes into the restart. 

Savage tallied two scores of his own. The first goal came on an assist from Aki Freeman at the 28th minute, while his second came off a beautiful feed from freshman midfielder Alex Thissell in the 57th minute. 

Sandwiched between DiTommaso and Savage's second half scores were a pair of goals of his own by senior Noah Engstrom (Freeman, Fish). 

The Mariners of Mitchell College did manage to keep the game in the balance early on, however. In what looked like could become an out of hand contest after three straight first half Coast Guard goals, Matt Ladd found Dylan Lucey who netted the first goal against the Bears of the season. The goal came with less than a minute left to play in the first frame of play to bring the score to 3-1. 

Mitchell got their second goal of the game with minutes to play when Jeremy Gibbs found the back of the goal off a penalty kick after back-to-back Bears penalties. 

In the end, it was Coast Guard pulling away with impressive performances from twenty-three different players who saw game action. 

Full Scoring Summary:

09:46 — John DiTommaso, Coast Guard (Aidan Miles) — 1-0

23:18 — John DiTommaso, Coast Guard (Michael O'Brien) — 2-0

27:31 — Casey Savage, Coast Guard (Aki Freeman) — 3-0 

44:27 — Dylan Lucey, Mitchell (Matt Ladd) — 3-1

50:33 — John DiTommaso, Coast Guard (unassisted) — 4-1

56:44 — Noah Engstrom, Coast Guard (Aki Freeman) — 5-1

69:34 — Noah Engstrom, Coast Guard (Charles Fish) — 6-1

79:36 — Casey Savage, Coast Guard (Alex Thissell) — 7-1

87:02 — Jeremy Gibbs, Mitchell (Penalty Kick) — 7-2

With the win, the Bears improve to 5-0-1, while Mitchell drops to 2-5-0. Coast Guard will take the field again this Saturday, September 24th for a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) match-up with Clark University at 3pm EST on Nitchman Field.