Two Late Goals Lift Castleton Over JSC
Castleton, VT - Sean Fitzgerald (Saratoga Springs, NY) scored in the
70th minute and Jon Vogt (Henniker, NH) added an insurance tally in the
86th minute to lead Castleton State College to a 2-0 shutout of Johnson
State College in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) men’s soccer action
Thursday evening at Spartan Stadium.
Fitzgerald scored his ninth goal of the season off a leaping header to
provide the winning margin. Fitzgerald streaked down the right sideline,
and was fouled just outside of the 18-yard box near the end line. Greg
Klopfer (Voorheesville, NY) took the reset and lofted a cross to the
left side of the goal mouth drawing out Johnson State goalie Steve Noyes
(Barre, VT). The cross just barely eluded Noyes’ outstretched hands
and Fitzgerald redirected inside the right post.
Castleton’s second goal came when Jon Vogt struck a rebound that
ricocheted off a Johnson State defender and in. Chris Mulholland
(Ridgefield Park, NJ) hit a rocket towards the goal that Noyes was able
to deflect, but it bounced off the post and back to Vogt who one timed
it back towards the goal.
Noyes ended the contest with five saves, as Castleton applied constant
pressure to the Badger defense. The Spartans were able to muster 29
shots, but put just seven on net as Johnson State made it difficult to
find space with sometimes nine men in the penalty area. Mike Anthony
made four saves in earning his sixth shutout of the season.
Johnson State falls to 6-8-1 overall and 2-5-0 in the NAC. The Badgers
have locked up the sixth seed in the conference tournament, and will
play a quarterfinal game on October 28. With the win Castleton improves to 10-6-2 overall, and 5-1-1 in
conference play, clinching at least the second seed in the upcoming
conference tournament, and the first round bye that comes with the
top-two seeds.