NEW LONDON, Conn. —
The Coast Guard Academy men's soccer team benefitted from goals by five different players to defeat crosstown rivals Mitchell College, 5-0, on Wednesday night.
The Bears are now 18-0 all-time against the Mariners, who move 0-2 following the loss. Mitchell is back in action on Saturday, September 6th, at 2 p.m. as hosts of Medgar Evers College (0-1).
Aidan Miles (Tampa, Fla.) was the first Bear to find the back of the net, staying with a deflected fifth-minute corner kick before tapping it in for the opening score. Coast Guard didn't score for the rest of the half, but they were not without opportunities — the Bears took 18 shots in the first half, unable to make anything of them outside of Miles' goal.
It took almost 50 minutes for the Bears to get on the board again, and this time it was by way of new face
Lucas DaSilva (Old Lyme, Conn.). The goal was set up by
Jake Fish (Little Silver, N.J.), who took the corner preceding Miles' score. Fish took a great pass from classmate
Cole Miller (Annapolis, Md.) and dribbled into the box before rolling it over to a trailing DaSilva, who was able to tap it in for his first collegiate goal.
The third goal of the night came from a more familiar fixture in the Coast Guard lineup:
Aki Freeman (San Diego, Calif.). The Bears' senior scored on a shot from the elbow, which squeaked past Mariners' goalie
Jesse Jenkins for his first goal of 2025. The senior is looking to follow up a dynamic 2024 where he led the Bears with nine goals and 22 points.
Eric Howard (Dunkirk, Md.) got the fourth goal of the night in the 81st minute, who punched it past Jenkins from the left side of the box after being set up on a great tap by
Ayden Kim (Spanish Fort, Ala.). Howard's score was his first in a Coast Guard uniform and the second of his career, having scored once for Salisbury last year.
Finally,
Brenden Engstrom (Brea, Calif.) became the second Bears defender to tally a goal. Just five minutes after Howard scored, Engstrom was able to take advantage of Jenkins and a Mitchell defender getting tangled up in the box, allowing Engstrom to take advantage of an open net and score Coast Guard's fifth of the night.
The result is the most goals in a game for the program since September 12th, 2023, when the Bears handed UMass Dartmouth a 6-0 defeat. Coast Guard held a 33-5 advantage in shots, 18 of which were on goal; Jenkins saved 13 of those, including a few that could be added to his highlight reel. In the other net,
Connor Hickey (South Berwick, Maine) made two saves while playing his second full-90, having gone the distance last season at UMass Dartmouth. Coast Guard allowed just two shots on goals and zero corners while taking 11 corners themselves; they were also the more aggressive team, being whistled for 19 fouls to the Mariners' four.
Bears men's soccer is back at it on Saturday, September 6th, travelling Penn State Abington for a noontime game.