Owls Fly Past Framingham, 5-0

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State sophomore Ethan Margolis (Wakefield, Mass.) opened the game's scoring at the nine-minute mark as the Owls had five different goal scorers as part of a 5-0 victory over Framingham State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game on Saturday afternoon from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass.

The Owls have yet to tally a loss in conference play, improving to 2-0-2 in the league and 5-5-3 on the season. The Rams fall to 0-10-2 overall and 0-4 in the conference.

Margolis put the Owls on the board early after Coleby Andrade's (Falmouth, Mass.) rocket of a shot rang off the crossbar, bouncing back to Carter Hebert (Easthampton, Mass.) who touched a pass to Margolis. Margolis worked through traffic in front of the net, then buried his first of the season to give Westfield a 1-0 lead.

Just over two minutes later, Margolis distributed a pass off a corner kick to Sonny Mazza (East Longmeadow, Mass.) who then played the ball back to the top of the box to Tim Tkacz (Suffield, Conn.) who launched a shot through a group of players and into the lower-lefthand corner of the net to double the Owls lead, 2-0.

The Owls then added another first-half marker before the halfway point in the first half. A two-man game between Andrade and Mazza initiated a two-on-one into the Rams defensive end. Andrade possessed the ball at the midfield and found Mazza, who dribbled up field, then fed a through pass back to Andrade who ripped a low shot past the diving Mikey Walker (Bridgewater, Mass.) for a three-goal advantage.

In the second half, Westfield continued to build on the lead thanks in part to first-year forward Mateo Navarro (Westfield, Mass.) who collected a pass at the top of the penalty area, then delivered a sliding shot towards goal which sailed into the upper-left corner of the net for his first collegiate goal of his career.

Junior Jesse Njamnshi (Fitchburg, Mass.) put the finishing touches on a dominant afternoon for Westfield, with Ryan Viana (Framingham, Mass.) using nifty footwork to get through three Rams defenders, setting up Njamnshi who scored on a low shot for his first tally of the season.

Gustav Hemmingsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Yuji DaSilva (Worcester, Mass.) each led Framingham with two shots on net, with one opportunity coming from Hemmingsen where Marko Kononenko (Kyiv, Ukraine) came out of his net to make a kick save.

The Owls outshot the Rams 20-18 in the game. Luke Theroux (Chicopee, Mass.) logged his fourth win of the season by making three saves. Kononenko entered the match in the second half and preserved the shutout with five saves in the second half. Wilson (L, 0-5) made five saves for Framingham.

Westfield State will remain home for their next match as the Owls host Regis College on Monday at 4:00 P.M. from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass. Framingham State travels to Salve Regina for a non-conference match on Tuesday at 4:00 P.M.