NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (November 7, 2024) – Stonehill men's soccer dropped its 2024 season finale on the road at Central Connecticut State University on Thursday, 3-2.
 
Stonehill finishes the season sixth in the Northeast Conference regular season standings, missing the playoffs by just a few points. The Skyhawks surpassed both their non-conference and conference win totals from their previous two seasons at the Division I level.
 
Highlights

• Sophomore Tyler Sloan (Tallahassee, Fla.) finishes the season 5-4-0 in nine starts in net with a 1.50 goals against average and a .741 save percentage. He made 40 saves in nine starts, averaging a little over four stops per game.
• Junior Shane Fonseca (Framingham, Mass.) scored his third goal of the season, all of which came in the final four games. His three goals come in just 294 minutes on the pitch this season as he ranked 19th in minutes played on the team but tied for third in goals and fifth in points.
• Junior Jared Rapoza (Somerset, Mass.) netted his fifth goal of the season, second most on the team. This was his first goal of the season that didn't end up as the game-winner for the Skyhawks.
• Sophomore Tiago Lima-Bittencourt (Charlotte, N.C.) picked up his team-leading fifth assist of the season on Rapoza's goal as he finishes with the second most points, 11, behind senior Colin Milliken (Easton, Mass.), who ends with 15 points on six goals and three assists.
• All three of Central Connecticut State's goals came from Ethan Agyare-Danso, who notched his first career hat trick in the Blue Devils' first win of the season.

How it Happened 
 
Stonehill opened the scoring instantly as a shot was rocketed right at CCSU's goalkeeper. Julian Layne, who deflected the ball away but his rebound went right to Fonseca who buried the ball into the back of the net to give the Skyhawks a 1-0 lead in the first minute of action.
 
A pass up the right sideline and into the 18-yard box from Joey Tata set up Agyare-Danso for his first goal of the game for the Blue Devils with a right-footed shot that went past Sloan for the equalizer in the fourth minute.
 
Both offenses quieted down after the pair of goals as Milliken was the loan player to record a shot on goal for the rest of the first half as the teams went into the halftime break tied, 1-1.
 
The Blue Devils broke the tie in the 63rd minute when a shot from Anthony Catanzaro was seemingly covered up by Sloan but popped out of his grasp, leading to Agyare-Danso capitalizing, blasting a shot into the back of the net to capitalize on the Skyhawk miscue.
 
A line drive shot from Bittencourt was turned away but with a full head of steam, Rapoza came sprinting into the box to collect the loose ball, rifling it into the back right corner of the net to tie the game at 2-2 in the 64th minute.
 
Sloan had a pair of exceptional stops in the next 10 minutes, but a strong push into the attacking zone from the Blue Devils in the 83rd minute led to a nice set-up from Trevor Rau for Agyare-Danso who completed the hat trick with a right-footed shot across his body to the bottom left corner of the goal to give CCSU the late lead.
 
Stonehill couldn't muster up the game-tying goal in the final seven minutes of action, dropping its season finale on the road at Central Connecticut.
 
Up Next
Stonehill men's soccer (6-9-3, 2-4-2 NEC) will be back on the field in 2025 for its fourth year at the Division I level as members of the Northeast Conference next fall.
 
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