'NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-The Keene State men's soccer team moved into first place in the Little East Conference with a 3-0 victory over UMass-Dartmouth at Cressy Field Saturday afternoon.  The Owls win, along with R.I. College's 2-0 victory against Plymouth State, pushed the Owls into the top spot with 13 points. RIC and PSU have 12 points each. 

Eric Scott, who assisted on all three goals for the Owls, set up the first one when he threaded a pass into the box, which sent Alex Horne (Harvard, Mass.) one-on-one with UMass Dartmouth junior goalkeeper Adam Rolfe (Southwick, MA.). Horne flicked a low shot that just made it into the far corner at the 26:44 mark for the only goal of the first half.

The Corsairs fought back, narrowly missing on a couple of crosses in the box before Keene State doubled their lead. Scott's pass found Scott Cuff (Kingston, Mass.) in front of the goal, and he re-directed it home to make it 2-0 with 38 minutes remaining. Ralph Rocco (Groton, Mass.) took a pass from Scott and sent a low shot into the far corner at the 72:15 mark to wrap up the scoring.

"We picked a nice time to put a good, solid effort together," said KSC Coach Ron Butcher.  "The guys knew the season was on the line and the came out ready to play."

"They converted their chances, and we didn't," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Ray Cabral. "We sent a couple of balls right across the goal mouth, and we had no one there to knock them home. We gave the ball away too many times, and it cost us. You can't do that against a good team."

Keene State out shot the Corsairs, 16-10. Rolfe made five saves for UMD, while Peter Kersker was credited with six for the Owls.

UMass Dartmouth fell to 5-8-1, 0-5-1 in conference play with the defeat, while Keene State improved to 11-4-1 and 4-1-1 in the LEC with the victory. The Corsairs will return to action when they host Bridgewater State Tuesday afternoon in the final home game of the regular season. KSC will visit Middlebury Wednesday afternoon.