NORTHFIELD, Vt.- In their first meeting since 2006, the Norwich Men's Soccer team shut down New England College 1-0 Tuesday night. The win stretches their unbeaten streak to eight games, along with being their third straight win, and their first in program history over the Pilgrims.

The first meeting between the two twin state programs under the umbrella of Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play began with a lengthy feeling out process before the first shots were attempted. The Cadets began to press the offensive attack with three shot attempts before scoring the lone goal of the contest. After some back-and-forth passing between Mason Reddington (Harper's Ferry, W. Va.) and Oleksandr Kharchuk (Ukraine), Kharchuk would center a ball to the goal line of the Sabine Field end zone where Jami Lashua (Williston, Vt.) would head the ball into the bottom right corner to break the ice.

Early in the second half, Norwich pressed the attack as they looked to extend their lead taking eight shot attempts, but Pilgrim goalkeeper Hayden Walker kept his team in the contest making five saves. As time was winding down, the Pilgrims generated their most consistent offense of the game but could not generate a shot on target before the final buzzer, as Nicolas Lanza (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) comes away with another clean sheet.

"NEC made it very difficult on us, but the guys did a great job finding a way through," Head Coach Staige Davis said. "A clean sheet and three points going into the weekend is all you can ask for as a coach. I'm proud of these guys, they worked incredibly hard and deserved the win."

Over the weekend, the Cadets will conclude the home portion of their regular season schedule when they host Johnson & Wales for Senior Day on Saturday afternoon at 3 PM.