BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The 8th seeded Northampton men's soccer team saw their season come to a heartbreaking end on Saturday, falling 1-0 to 9th seeded Montgomery County Community College at the Spartan Soccer Complex.

Ben Lare scored what proved to be the game winner for the Mustangs at the 27 minute mark, finding the back of the net from 15 yards out, beating Spartan goaltender Omar Zatar (Paterson, NJ/Pocono Mt. West) to the right corner.

The two EPAC foes would battle back and forth for the next 63 minutes, with neither being able to capitalize on multiple scoring opportunities. 

At the 88 minute mark, it looked like Northampton's Cael Anderko (Bath, PA/Northampton) had tied the game with a blast from 27 yards out, but Montgomery's Matt Strainz made a tremendous acrobatic save to preserve the Montgomery victory. 

The loss ends Northampton's season at 6-7-2, their first losing season since 2018 when they finished 4-9-0 in Coach Mario Barrentes' first season. 

Montgomery moved to 6-4-3 with the win and will now advance to the Region 19 semi-finals where they will face top-seeded Camden County College on Tuesday October 29th.