BENNINGTON, Vt. — Southern Vermont College dropped a hard-fought 2-1 decision to Newbury College Saturday afternoon in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's soccer action at Everett Field, the final regular season game for both teams.

The two sides spent a majority of the opening 15 minutes seeing what style their opponent was going to play and trying to get the early edge. In that time span, there was only one shot registered and a combined five offsides calls.

As the bitter cold conditions continued, the game's intensity and aggressiveness started to pick up as a plethora of fouls began to be called in an attempt to keep the match in the referees' control. One of the best opportunities before the break came in the final minute of the first half when SVC worked the ball down the left side, deep into Newbury territory. Mountaineer senior Erik Argueta (Pico Rivera, California) chipped the ball from the left side of the pitch towards the near post where sophomore Marc Massena (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) was waiting; Massena made a great flick off his head at the frame, but Nighthawk junior goalkeeper Antonios Tran (Chelsea, Massachusetts) was waiting and made the quick reaction for the tie-preserving save.

After another 20 minutes of scoreless action to begin the second half, Newbury got on the scoreboard with the first goal of the season by sophomore German Canales (Lynn, Massachusetts). NC senior Milton Ricuarte (Barranquilla, Columbia) displayed a great ball control performance in the middle of the SVC zone, keeping it away from the Mountaineers before slipping a nice through ball to Canales who took a few controlled touches and slotted a shot to make it 1-0.

About eight minutes later, Newbury extended its lead with a rebound put-home. Nighthawk freshman Ricarfens Saintil (Boston, Massachusetts) took a shot from the middle of the box, one that was turned away by SVC freshman goalie Cody Gross (Fair Lawn, New Jersey). Gross couldn't corral the shot, however, and the rebound squirted away for Ricuarte to run on and punch in his sixth of the year for the 2-0 advantage.

With time running low, Southern Vermont continued to push forward to try and make something happen. At the 86:22 mark, a 50/50 ball ended up at the feet of Argueta who was in the middle of the field about 40 yards away from the NC net; he lined up and ripped a laser of a shot that stayed low on Tran, finding its way to the bottom left corner of the frame for his sixth goal of the season, pulling the Mountaineers to within one.

That would be all that SVC could muster, however, as the clock wound down and expired, giving the Nighthawks the 2-1 road victory.

Tran picked up the win (2-4) with five saves on the day while Gross suffered the loss (1-14-1), turning away five Newbury shots in the effort.

Saturday acted as SVC's Senior Day as the Mountaineers recognized and honored their six senior members of the team: Argueta, Brenden Shea (North Providence, Rhode Island), Matthew Snow (Centerville, Massachusetts), Sean Wright (Belvidere, New Jersey), Tommy Youngblood (Leonardtown, Maryland), and CJ Salva who tragically passed away in the summer of 2012 and would have been competing as a senior this year.

Southern Vermont concludes the season with a 2-14-1 overall mark and a 1-5-1 record against the conference. The win gives Newbury a berth in the NECC postseason as the Nighthawks improve to 3-4 in league play, 5-12-1 overall. With the official conference seeding still to be announced, NC will likely play a first round game on Tuesday as the sixth seed at No. 3 Lesley University.