Box Score LEWISTON, Maine – None of the current members of the University of Maine at Farmington men's soccer team were even alive that last time the Beavers defeated a member of the Pine Tree State's athletically vaunted Colby-Bates-Bowdoin triad.
And you have to go about a decade further back than that to find a win over Bates College.
But a persistent UMaine-Farmington attack combined with a stingy defense and a few timely saves from keeper Bradley Neal led the Beavers to turn the tables on one of their longtime in-state nemeses with a 1-0 win over Bates College, on a cool Tuesday night at Garcelon Field.
The victory was arguably the most significant in recent program history.
UMaine-Farmington last defeated Bates back in 1984, when the Beavers triumphed 4-1 to close out the regular season; since then, UMaine-Farmington had lost 18 straight to the Bobcats and were shutout in each of the last three meetings.
The Beavers' most recent win over any of Maine's "C-B-B" men's soccer teams came in 1996 when UMaine-Farmington notched a 2-1 win over Colby College for legendary coach Bob Leib's 200th win at the helm of the program (it was also the senior season for current UMaine-Farmington athletics director Jamie Beaudoin '97).
The exclamation mark on the night was that the Beavers improved to 9-2-1 overall with the victory, while Bates sank to 6-7-0 with the loss.
UMaine-Farmington charted the game's only goal in the 30th minute when junior forward Yusuf Mohamed scored his sixth goal of the season, off a cross from first year Gracien Mukwa. Mohamed was well inside the Bobcats' six-yard box when he redirected the pass past Bates keeper Luca Antolini for the score.
Bates outshot UMaine-Farmington, 13-5, in the opening half and had the only two corner kicks taken over the first 45 minutes, but the Beavers held off the Bobcats and sustained their lead into the halftime break.
The Bobcats ramped up the pressure in the second, outshooting the Beavers, 13-2, with an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks. UMaine-Farmington survived a pair of quality scoring opportunities – a chip from Bates' Charlie Cronin that went wide left of the goal in the 62nd minute and Jacob Iwowo's header in the 71st minute that was wide right – but the Beavers defense effectively smothered the Bobcats' attack, and Neal was forced to make just three saves over the course of the second half.
Neal tallied seven saves over 90 minutes in the clean sheet win – the third shutout of his career. Antolini finished the night with four saves in the Bates goal.
UMaine-Farmington closes out its 2021 North Atlantic Conference slate on Saturday, Oct. 23, when the Beavers host Thomas College at Leib Field. Game time is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
