NEW LONDON, Conn — 

U.S. Coast Guard Academy men's soccer head coach Chris Parsons joined rare company on Saturday, becoming just the second head coach in the program's history to reach 200 wins at the Academy following his team's 1-0 NEWMAC win against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Coast Guard improves to 5-2-2 overall and 1-0-1 in conference play, while MIT moves to 2-5-2 on the season and 0-1-1 in the NEWMAC. The Engineers are now on a three-game winless streak but will have a chance to break it when they travel to Endicott College (4-3) on Tuesday.

The Coast Guard Academy has fielded a men's soccer team since the fall of 1939, and just six coaches have presided over the program since its inaugural season. With the win, Parsons joins his predecessor, the legendary Ray Cieplik, as the only other coach in program history to win 200 games at the Academy. Cieplik had a 31-year tenure as head coach, winning an unprecedented 248 games from 1970 to 1977 and 1979 to 2001 before passing the baton to Parsons in 2002.

The score seemed destined to stay at zero all heading into halftime before Ayden Kim (Spanish Fort, Ala.) broke through in the 44th minute. The play was set up by Jake Fish (Little Silver, N.J.), who got to the ball near the left corner after a great pass upfield by Kai Trager (San Clemente, Calif.). Fish then moved away from the corner before tapping it back to Kim, who moved around an MIT defender before firing his shot. The ball took a deflection off of an Engineers defender, altering it's path enough to get our of reach of a diving Paolo Mangiafico, who had done a solid job of keeping the Bears off the board up to that point by making four saves.

Kim's goal was all Coast Guard needed thanks to a great second half defensive performance by the team. MIT took eight shots in the final 45, but the Bears allowed only three to be on target, each of which were saved by starting goalie Samuel Linkous (Pnte Vedra Beach, Calif.). The Bears further showed why they're a force to be reckoned with when they have a lead by making the necessary stops that don't show up in the box score throughout the half.

By the game's end, Coast Guard held a 14-9 edge on shots taken and were ahead, 6-3, in shots on goal. The Bears also had more opportunities on the corners, also holding a 6-3 lead in that regard. MIT was called for 11 fouls to the Bears' nine, while player on each team was shown a yellow card during the day. Mangiafico made one more save second half to bring his total to five, while Linkous made all three of his in the second.

Bears men's soccer won't be home again for a while, beginning a series of four straight road games on Tuesday when they head up to Western New England University (3-6). Coast Guard will look for a different result after last year's Battle of the Bears went the Golden variants' way in a 0-1 result.