Medford, Massachusetts – Standout defense coupled with a strong offensive display powered the Fisher College men's soccer team over Vermont Technical College 6-0 on Wednesday.

With the shutout the Falcons improve to 7-4-3 on the season, while the Knights drop to 7-10.

Early in the game, the Knights pressured the Falcon defense outshooting the Falcons 6-2 in the first six minutes.

In spite of the Knights' early activity, Falcon junior midfielder Tom Pugliese (Saugus, California) opened scoring 20 minutes in on a pass from Walter Factor (Ledyard, Connecticut) to give Fisher a 1-0 lead.

Just 30 seconds after the ball was reset at midfield, the Falcons regained possession and Tyler Gahara (Hookset, New Hampshire) netted the second Fisher goal unassisted.

In the first half Fisher led in shots 12-11.

To open the second half, Jordan Markovich (Saugus, California) capitalized on a VTC foul with a goal to advance the lead to 3-0. 

Although most teams were active, no goals were scored for most of the second half.

Falcon midfielder Robert Milne (Lenox, Massachusetts) ended the drought with 25 minutes left to play to advance the lead to 4-0.

Markovich punted a corner kick in the 72nd minute towards the crowd in front of the net, but the ball was pushed out to the left side where Daniel Akesutu (Lagos, Nigeria) launched the ball into the back of the net to make the score 5-0 Fisher. 

With less than a minute to play, Gary Maldonado (Lawrence, Massachusetts) netted the final goal to ice the game at 6-0 for the Falcons.

Freshman keeper Eliseu DiPena earned the shutout victory with nine saves in shots on goal.  The Falcons had a total of 27 shots with 15 shots on goal in the victory.  The Knights battled hard with 19 total shots and nine shots on goal.

The Falcons will return to action versus the University of Maine-Presque Isle in their "senior day" game at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Medford High School in Medford, Massachusetts.