SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — 

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy men's soccer team was dealt a 0-1 loss by hosting side Springfield College in a Wednesday night New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) battle. The game was locked in a scoreless tie for 72 minutes before the Pride's Connor Policarpio broke the silence with a screamer.

Coast Guard moves to 7-5-5 overall and 3-1-3 in-conference, while Springfield improves to 7-8-1 on the season and 2-3-1 against NEWMAC foes. The Pride will close out their season on Saturday, November 1st, with a road contest at #8 Wheaton College (13-0-4, 6-0-1).

Policarpio's game-winner was as close to a rocket as a shot could be, taking a pass from Arya Kouzehkanani and sending it on a curl into the top right bin. It was a world-class goal in a must-win game for the Pride, who now hold a tighter grip on fourth place in the conference after heading into the match in a three-way tie with Emerson College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute for the position.

For Coast Guard, the contest proved to be a classic example of how cruel a mistress the sport of soccer can be. The Bears held a 20-9 lead in shot attempts, a slimmer 6-3 advantage in shots on goal, and dominated the corners to a 10-0 margin. Despite having the greater of the two teams' offensive chances, Coast Guard found themselves on the losing end. The Bears were called for 16 fouls to Springfield's 12 and were also awarded the two yellow cards of the match.

The Bears seemed to have a major chance at equalizing in the 90th minute after Aki Freeman (San Diego, Calif.) found himself on th receiving end of a hard foul near the edge of the box by the Pride's Parker Thornton. Although the challenge appeared to be on the inside edge of the line, the head referee called it on the outside for a close-range free kick. Unfortunately for Coast Guard, the set piece did not work as planned, ending with a header sailing wide right.

Cole Miller (Annapolis, Md.) led the Bears with five total shot attempts and a team-high two on goal. Freeman made four tries, while Michael Porter (Baltimore, Md.) and two other cadet-athletes made two attempts, with Porter being the only one of the three to be on target once. James Von Dyl (San Diego, Calif.) was also on-target for his lone shot attempt, while Policarpio and Thornton paced the hosts with three shot attempts each. Springfield's starter in goal Noah Pote won the keeper match-up by way of chances, saving six shots to Connor Hickey's (Portsmouth, Maine) two.

Bears men's soccer now heads into their final game of the regular season on Saturday, in which they'll face Babson College (8-6-1, 4-2-1) in a noontime contest. The Beavers fell, 0-1, to Wheaton on Tuesday and hold second place on the NEWMAC table, one point ahead of the third place Bears, making Saturday's match-up a must-win if the Bears wish to overtake Babson for second place and earn an automatic berth and home field advantage in a NEWMAC Championship Tournament semifinal game. The Beavers dealt Coast Guard a 0-6 loss in last season's meeting.