Men’s Soccer Fall in Season Opener Against the Cadets

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The MCLA Men's Soccer team opened their 2025 season by hosting the Norwich University Cadets at Shewcraft Field. A scoreless first half led into an exciting second half with both teams having scoring opportunities before the visitors finally broke through for the game's only score with just over five minutes left on the clock.

THE BASICS:

• Date: Friday, August 29, 2025
• Score: Norwich 1, MCLA 0
• Records: Norwich University Cadets 1-0-0 (GNAC 0-0-0) | MCLA Trailblazers 0-1-0 (MASCAC 0-0-0)
• Series History: MCLA leads the all-time series 2-1, including a 3-0 win when they last met on September 5, 1998. The Trailblazers also won the first ever meeting on September 7, 1991.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The defense for both teams did yeoman's work in the first half, but it was MCLA junior goalkeeper Oliver Le Lacheur (Medford, MA) who withstood the game's first significant scoring opportunity when Norwich's Diego Fuentes lofted a free kick into the middle of the box for a header by Christian Grubic from about 10 yards out. Le Lacheur held his ground and crashed onto the ball to frustrate the Cadet's forward.
• The next best scoring opportunity also came off the foot of a Norwich player, but it was the Trailblazers senior midfielder Marcos Lopez (Albany, NY) who cleaned up in front of the net. The Cadet's brought the ball through midfield, and Sharmarke Hassan's chip shot forward drew Le Lacheur off his line with a diving effort at the foot of another Norwich forward. Le Lacheur's effort prevented the Cadet from getting a clean shot and let Lopez keep the ball out of the net with just over 10 mintues off the second half clock.
• MCLA had responded with their best scoring opportunity with 19 minutes left in the half when freshman forward Kyle Cardoso (Pittsfield, MA) found sophomore midfielder Kyle Almeida (Averill Park, NY) crashing to the net, only for Almeida's shot to crash off the cross bar and out of the six yard box.
• Norwich finally broke through with the game's lone goal with just over five minutes to play when Fuentes pushed the ball through midfield where Shea Perkins out raced a pair of Trailblazers for the ball and got off a shot from just to the left of the penalty stripe into the lower left corner of the goal.
• The Cadet's Kirk Rodgers stopped all four shots he faced and improved to 1-0-0 on the year, while the Trailblazers' Le Lacheur saw their record fall to 0-1-0.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Shots: Norwich 12, MCLA 7
• Saves: Norwich 4, MCLA 7
• Corner Kicks: Norwich 4, MCLA 4
• Fouls: Norwich 10, MCLA 11

UP NEXT:

On Sunday, MCLA will be back in action when they travel to SUNY Poly for a non-conference matchup with the Wildcats in Utica. The teams will take the pitch for a 2 p.m. kickoff.

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