Syracuse, N.Y. – The Le Moyne College men's soccer team earned a 1-0 victory over the Merrimack College Warriors on Thursday at Ted Grant Field in Northeast Conference action.

It was the first shutout of the season for the Dolphins, who improved their conference record to 2-1-2 and now have eight points in the NEC Standings, which puts them in a three-way tie for third place.

Redshirt-sophomore forward Jakob Priestman (Leek, England/Westwood/Missouri State) scored the match winner for the Dolphins in the 32^nd minute with an assist from freshman forward Felix Ludemann (Wrestedt, Germany/Herzog-Ernst-Gymnasium Uelzen). The goal was Priestman's second of the season, and Ludemann recorded his second assist of the campaign.

"I saw Felix coming down the wing, he beat his man then he started to make his way into the box, and he was coming towards me so I had to obviously get out of the way, so I kind of made a little run between the defense. Saw the opportunity and finished the ball off," said Priestman after the game.

Freshman goalkeeper Wyatt Dupell (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) recorded five saves during the 90 minutes to register his first career clean sheet.

The Warriors had the advantage in shots on goal by a tally of 5-2.

"We knew it was going to be a difficult match against a good Merrimack team," said Le Moyne head coach Callum Donnelly '17, M '21. "I didn't think it was our best performance that we've put in, there's a number of factors in that, but I'm really happy with the goal we scored. I thought it was a good goal, Felix did really well, and it's a brilliant run from Priestman to get in the box and finish it off. So, really happy with the goal, really happy with the clean sheet. There's big parts to the performance that we can improve on, but I thought we showed a side today that we haven't had to do all season which is grind out a result when we're really not playing well. So, I'm really pleased that we were able to do that.

"Part of the halftime team talk was to try and get the second goal. We wanted that. I think today when I'm on the side with my staff we saw that we weren't able to create many moments going forward in the second half. We had to defend deep, we had to dig in as a unit, we had to be there for each other. I think we all knew we did not have a whole lot of attacking threats in the second half and at that point you have to really defend your box. I thought in moments we did that well. They missed a couple opportunities as the half went on. But we're really happy with the fight and determination of the group. They never fail to amaze me with their work rate and dedication to each other, and that was really important," Donnelly added.

Le Moyne defenders Jack Goodrich, Benedict Klimmek, Brett Stern and Maximilian Huss each played the full 90 minutes, along with midfielders Ziad Abdul-Malak and Bryce Koagel.

"It was probably not our best game soccer wise, but the big important thing is we have our first clean sheet of the season," said Klimmek. "Obviously, we tried to keep (the ball) as far as possible from our goal, and not let as many balls into our penalty area, and then we defended as a unit. I thought Wyatt Dupell did a great job, he caught some balls [played into the penalty area] and gave us some safety."

Priestman, who played in his seventh consecutive game after working back from injury to start the season, logged a season-high 82 minutes, and junior forward Michael Sparkes, who was in his third game back from injury, played a season-high 65 minutes.

"Coming back from injury at the start of the season is tough fitness wise and confidence wise, but the more games I'm playing the more confident I am, the fitter I am, just a better team player I am, I can support my teammates more, so it's good," said Priestman.

"Just the team grinding it out, to be honest," said Priestman about what it took to get the win. "It was really tough for everyone. It was up and down, up and down, chasing our men. We didn't play our best, but we all stuck together and worked hard as a team and we got a good result from it… (The win) feels amazing, especially the clean sheet."

With three conference games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Dolphins are now tied for third place in the standings alongside LIU (5-5-3, 2-1-2 NEC) and Sacred Heart (5-6-2, 2-1-2 NEC).

With the loss, Merrimack (4-6-2, 2-3-1 NEC) drops below Le Moyne into sixth place with seven points.

Saint Francis (5-0-6, 3-0-2 NEC), who defeated LIU on Thursday, and FDU (6-2-4, 3-0-2 NEC) are at the top of the conference standings with 11 points each.

Le Moyne (2-5-6, 2-1-2 NEC) will return to action on Sunday with a 1:00 p.m. match at Howard University (1-9-1, 0-4 NEC).

Le Moyne is now 14-14-3 all-time against Merrimack.

"Obviously the big focus is for Sunday. We have to recover our legs, we have to get guys back fit who were banged up today, I think that's really important," said Donnelly. "We know Howard is going to be a really difficult place to go on Sunday, but I think what we've done today is we've put where we want to be in our own hands. We want to play in the postseason, that's a really important goal for us, and I think we've put ourselves in control of that now. So, it's just one game at a time and we focus solely on Sunday's game, and we're going to have to be at our best to get anything out of that match against Howard."

In the 22^nd minute, Merrimack sophomore midfielder Laurie Goddard received the ball near the top of the box, turned towards his left shoulder and hit a hard shot on goal, but Klimmek headed the ball up and over the crossbar for a corner kick.

In the 25^th minute, Huss carried the ball forward from the back towards midfield, then poked the ball into space for Abdul-Malak, who sent it out to the right wing for Ludemann. Sparkes made a run towards the top left corner of the six-yard box, and Ludemann led him with a pass. Merrimack goalkeeper Alvaro Rodriguez stepped forward and made a point-blank save on Sparkes' one-time right-footed shot to keep match scoreless.

In the 32^nd minute, Ludemann received a pass from Koagel on the right wing, then dribbled diagonally at his defender. Ludemann used a shifty move to get past his man, then cut to his left to evade the help defender before poking a pass into the right side of the penalty area for Priestman who placed a right-footed shot past the oncoming goalkeeper with his first touch to give the Dolphins a 1-0 lead.

Goddard created a chance for the Warriors in the final 30 seconds of the first half when he played a ball from the right side towards the left side of the Le Moyne penalty area for Daniel Bucci whose header struck the left post.

A little less than 10 minutes into the second half, Ludemann carried the ball at his defender in the right side of Le Moyne's attacking third, then made a move to his right and was brought down just outside the penalty area, earning a free kick for the 'Phins. Goodrich drove the ball towards the goal on the set piece, but his kick was blocked by the Merrimack wall.

Dupell recorded three of his saves during the final 10 minutes. His final save came with two seconds left on the clock. Merrimack freshman defender Archie Day drove a ball into the Le Moyne penalty area in the closing moments of the match, and senior defender Trym Kyvaag headed the ball towards the right side of the net, but Dupell dove to his left to make the save and secure the 1-0 win.