Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.--Seniors Kevin Parma and Jake Bartnik each scored a goal in the second half as No. 24-ranked Western New England shut out MIT, 2-0, on Saturday in the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship First Round held at Cole Field on the campus of Williams College.

The Golden Bears, who run their win-streak to a season-best five games to improve to 16-4-3, advance to Sunday's second round (1:30 p.m.) versus Williams, a 4-0 winner over Elms in today's other action. The Engineers end at 13-5-2.

After a scoreless first half in which MIT dominated with an 18-3 shots margin, the Golden Bears broke through on the board with a goal on just their sixth shot of the afternoon. Parma headed his second tally of the season in the 61st minute.

Bartnik netted his team-leading 12th goal, extending his career best, on a penalty kick in the 87th minute.

Western New England defeated MIT for the first time since their last meeting in the 2002 Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Tournament. Despite trailing 7-3 in the all-time series, the Golden Bears are now 2-0 in postseason play against the Engineers.

MIT looked to be the better team early on, dominating the majority of the possession in the first half. The first chance came in the 5th minute when freshman Kareem Itani played a nice through-ball down the left side to junior Nicholas Diamantoni, but the ensuing cross was cut out at the near post just in time by Parma before sophomore Austin Freel could bury the ball in the back of the net.

Seven minutes later, the Engineers were gifted another opportunity for scoring after some confusion between two WNE defenders allowed for Diamantoni to intercept a pass and blaze down the left wing. As he cut into the box, freshman Neil Williams recovered on defense and looked to have possibly brought down Diamantoni, but no foul was called.

The Engineers created their best chance of the game to score in the 18th minute, when Diamantoni found himself with the ball deep into the Golden Bears' defensive third on the left side. After racing to the touchline, he sent in a bullet cross which was redirected beautifully by Itani, forcing a nifty save by senior keeper and co-captain Domenick Villano. Villano ended up with five saves.

The Engineers looked dangerous once again only 11 minutes later as Diamantoni sent another cross from the left side, this time to the far post. Senior Matthew Monheit collected the cross and fired a shot on target, but it was deflected over the bar by a WNE defender. The proceeding corner was swung in nicely by Diamantoni, but Villano looked to collect the cross himself, however mishandled the ball. Monheit pounced on the loose ball, but he was unable to steer his shot on target, rocketing it wide of the right post.

The Golden Bears came out in the second half, looking re-energized and with a new game plan after making some changes in the midfield.

Fifteen minutes into the half the changes paid off, as their attack began to pick up. Bartnik won a ball on the left side of the attack, and beat both of his defenders in a footrace to the touchline, where he sent a cross toward the center of the box. The ball appeared to be knocked out of bounds by the hand of a MIT defender, but the referee signaled for a corner rather than a penalty.

The ensuing corner was cleared out to the right side of the field to junior Chad Barrett, who sent another cross into the box towards the far post. Senior Ryan Williams latched his head onto the ball, smashing the ball toward goal, but sophomore keeper Jake Amereno made a spectacular fingertip save to deny Williams. The parry fell perfectly for Parma right in front of goal, who made no mistake nodding the ball into the open net for the co-captain's eighth career goal to break the scoreless deadlock.

The Engineers seemed to be completely demoralized by the goal, as it took only 13 more minutes for the Bears to create an opportunity to double their lead. Bartnik streaked down the right sideline and received a beautiful through-ball to send him the rest of the way to the touchline. He then slid a another low cross into the box, where sophomore Chad Burke was waiting right in the center of the box to fire a shot towards goal, but Amereno makes a beautiful save to keep the MIT's deficit at 1-0.

The very next minute, the situation for MIT went from bad to worse as Freel received his second yellow card on the day for a hard sliding tackle from behind, leaving the Engineers with just 10 men on the field.

The Engineers found it very difficult to create any real chances on goal when down to 10 men, as the Golden Bears' back line locked down very well thanks to the industry of Parma, senior Jon Axton, and junior Chris Bruton.

The Golden Bears' win was sealed in the 87th minute with a second goal by way of Bartnik. After a long throw-in by the Engineers with nearly everyone forward, Bartnik received the clearance by his defense, and was off to the races behind the MIT back line. Junior defender Jason Adler managed to recover, but all he could do was bring down Bartnik inside the penalty area, resulting in a straight red card for Adler and a penalty opportunity for the Golden Bears, which Bartnik slotted into the left panel of the goal past the outstretched arms of Amereno.

With the Engineers down to nine men, there was not much left to do except watch the clock tick down to zero.

After the game, WNE head coach Erin Sullivan commented on the win: "It certainly wasn't our best start to a match, but MIT is a great team and have been all year. They got into a good rhythm in the first half, but we dug our heels in as the match went on and slowly pushed the match into their half. We had some veterans in the back, and they have been the hallmark of our team all year and proved it again today getting the shutout."

In spite of the loss, the Engineers outshot the Golden Bears by a margin of 28 to 10, but had only six shots on goal to the WNE's seven. The Golden Bears had four corners to the Engineers' trio, and eight fouls to the 16 of the Engineers.

(Editor's note: Scott Shelton of the Williams College Sports Information Office contributed to this game recap.)