WORCESTER -- WPI tallied all three of its goals off of corner kicks to defeat visiting MIT 3-1 in an important NEWMAC men's soccer match played on H.Carr Field at Alumni Stadium on Saturday evening. 

The triumph was meaningful for the hosts as it provided head coach Brian Kelley his 100th career victory at WPI and secured the Crimson and Gray the fourth seed in next week's NEWMAC Tournament and hosting rights against fifth-seeded Wheaton in a 4pm quarterfinal on Tuesday.  WPI knew it was in the five-team field after results earlier Saturday but could only host it opening game with a win Saturday night in its regular season finale. 

Kelley, now in his 10th year as head coach, is now 100-42-26 on Boynton Hill and joins his predecessors Alan King (240) and Malcolm MacPherson (198) in reaching the milestone.  Only those three men have served as head coach of the Engineers since 1957.  Prior to the game, long-time assistant coach Evan Holmes was honored.  It was the final regular season home match for widely popular Holmes, who is in his 31st season at WPI, arriving with MacPherson in the fall of 1992. 

MIT is now 8-8 overall and 4-3 in conference play.  Cambridge's Engineers are the three seed in the NEWMAC Tournament and will travel to second-seeded Emerson in a semifinal on Thursday at a time to be announced. 

WPI netted a pair of goals just over eight minutes apart in the opening 20 minutes.  Luke Savoie (Mansfield, MA) began the parade of goals off of corners when his ball found the head of Aaron Vaz (Medford, MA) for the junior's fifth goal of the season at 11:45.  Savoie didn't need any help on the second goal as his corner curved into the front corner of the net at 19:53.  The goal was the senior's sixth of 2022. 

The homestanding Engineers kept the pressure on right after intermission and were rewarded just over 90 seconds in when following a corner, Luke Reid (Kingston, MA) headed a ball to Christopher Martenson (Westport, CT), who buried a shot bottom left for his second marker in as many weeks.      

MIT began to turn the tables and were rewarded for its efforts at 81:07 as Aidan Hallinan (Carlsbad, CA) intercepted a pass, dribbled through four defenders and shot far right for his fourth goal of the season.  The visiting Engineers kept pressuring but were unable to get any closer. 

Roe Hendrick (Nashua, NH) turned away four shots on goal for WPI while Paarth Desai (Lawrenceville, GA) worked the opening half for MIT, making three saves and Lukas Hanson-Puffer (London, England) was credited with a stop in the final 45:00 of work for the guests. 

MIT enjoyed a 20-12 bulge in shots but only four of them were on frame.  WPI was rewarded five of the match's seven corner kicks.