BRUNSWICK, Maine – The Bowdoin College men's soccer team suffered its first defeat of the season on Saturday, dropping a 1-0 decision to Amherst in a battle of nationally-ranked squads at Pickard Field. The 22^nd-ranked Mammoths move to 8-2-2 (5-1-2 NESCAC) while the eighth-ranked Polar Bears fall to 7-1-3 (3-1-2 NESCAC).
 
Game Highlights

• The teams played a tightly-contested first half with neither team grabbing a great scoring chance.
• Amherst out-shot Bowdoin 9-3 in the opening half, but only put three on goal, all of which were saved by Bowdoin's Alex Ainsworth.
• Amherst pressured the Bowdoin net to start the second half and broke through in the 56th minute when a scrum in the Polar Bear box saw a ball deflect off the post through traffic to the toe of Niall Murphy. Murphy banged home the loose ball to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. It was the first goal for Amherst against Bowdoin since 2019.
• Bowdoin dominated the final 20 minutes of the match, continuously pressuring the Amherst net to no avail.
• The best chance came with 12 minutes remaining when a Tyler Huck header banged off the crossbar and was cleared by the Mammoth defense.

By The Numbers

• Ainsworth made five saves in net for Bowdoin while Amherst's Max Landa was forced to make one save.
• Amherst had a 6-1 edge in shots on goal (not including the Huck header off the crossbar) and both teams took two corner kicks in the contest.

Up Next

• Bowdoin is off until Saturday the 14^th when they travel to upstate New York to play at Hamilton at 1:30 p.m.