SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (October 7, 2025) – The Golden Bears were back on Suprenant Field for their fifth conference matchup of the season. They hosted Curry College on Tuesday afternoon. WNE would take a lead in the first half thanks to a Cole Casinghino goal. However, Curry College would equalize early in the second half before WNE scored three consecutive goals, thanks to Tyler Lewis (two goals) and Jack Leland (one goal), to take the contest, 4-1.

Records:

• Western New England: 4-7-1 (3-2-0)
• Curry College: 3-8-2 (0-5-0)

How it Happened:

First Half

• Braylon Casinghino and Justin Ritz began the conference clash in goal for WNE and Curry College.
• WNE came out with intensity. They had five shots in the first five minutes. They had one shot saved by Ritz.
• They kept sending shots at Curry College's goal, but could not find the opening goal. Ritz and the Colonels' defense were standing strong.
• However, Cole Casinghino would break the deadlock in the 22nd minute, when Ryan Sunshine sent a pass through the defense to Casinghino, who scored, and WNE had a 1-0 lead.
• WNE continued to send pressure at the Colonels. They sent shot after shot at Ritz, who, in turn, made save after save.
• WNE garnered multiple corner kick chances but could not find a second goal. Curry would answer with a shot saved by Casinghino in the 35th minute, their lone shot on goal of the first half.
• WNE ended the half with six shots, and half of them on goal. Ritz made each save, and after 45 minutes of play, WNE led 1-0.
• The halftime stats saw WNE leading in shots, 20-2, shots on goal, 8-1, corner kicks, 9-0, and fouls, 6-4. Curry College had more saves, 7-1.

Second Half:

• The second half saw WNE start by sending pressure at the Colonels, but after a shot from the Colonels' offense and a couple more from WNE, Curry College broke through and equalized the game.
• Lucas Drons found the back of the net after Jacob Ritz sent a booming kick from the opposition's penalty box. Drons made the score 1-1 in the 49th minute.
• WNE's intensity increased after that. They sent a couple shots at the Colonels before Tyler Lewis scored an unassisted goal after making a move in the 61st minute. WNE led 2-1.
• 1:01 later, Jake Thibodeau found Matt Spruill, who launched a shot, which fell to Tyler Lewis, who found the net for Lewis' second goal of the day. WNE now led 3-1 in the 62nd minute.
• The teams would trade possession of the ball for a little while after that before WNE started to send more shots at the Curry College goal. They had two shots saved by Ritz and two corners, with the second corner leading to the fourth WNE goal.
• Owen Dieterle would take the corner and send the ball to Jack Leland, who sent a header shot into the top-right corner of the goal, and WNE led 4-1 in the 68th minute.
• Even with the 4-1 lead, WNE would not stop sending shots at the goal.
• Ritz made save after save, with Ritz having an unbelievable save towards the end of the game, where Ritz had to dive through the air to save it.
• Jayden Cruz had the last shot of the afternoon in the 90th minute, and that shot going over the goal signaled the end of the contest.
• WNE took the contest by a score of 4-1.

Inside the Lines:

• WNE defeated Curry College on Tuesday.
• Cole Casinghino scored the opening goal in the 22nd minute. Ryan Sunshine had the assist. WNE led 1-0.
• Lucas Drons scored the equalizing goal in the 49th minute. Justin Ritz was credited with the assist. The score was 1-1.
• Tyler Lewis scored an unassisted goal in the 61st minute to gift WNE a 2-1 lead.
• Tyler Lewis scored a second goal in the 62nd minute; Matt Spruill and Jake Thibodeau had the assists. WNE led 3-1.
• Jack Leland scored the fourth and final goal in the 68th minute to lift WNE to a 4-1 win.
• WNE had more shots, 39-5, shots on goal, 18-2, corner kicks, 15-0, and fouls, 11-9, than Curry College. The Colonels had more saves, 14-1.

Coach's Corner:
Tyler Lewis caught up with the Sports Information Department after scoring two goals on Tuesday. Lewis was asked to explain the goals a little more from his vantage point. "The first one was definitely big. I had Cole open. I probably should have passed it to him; he made a good run. The ball found my feet, and that is all I needed to score. The second one was a great shot from Spruill, and I followed it up. (The goals) came at pretty big times and we needed to score," Lewis noted. Lewis was also asked about what he thought worked for the offense after the early second-half goal from Curry College. "I think we definitely found our center-mid's feet more. We were able to play through them to our wingers and then back to the middle to find our strikers. I also think the intensity after their goal went up. After our goals, our defensive intensity went up so that we could just continue to play in our half, and that's all we needed to do, just raise our intensity," Lewis stated.
Owen Dieterle met with the Sports Information Department for the first time this season. Dieterle has been increasingly involved in offensive production, and today, Owen's corner kick led to a goal. Owen was asked what he saw from our offensive set leading up to the goal. "In practice, we work on set-pieces all the time. Our coach always says that in Division III soccer, half the goals or even more than that come from set pieces, so it just came from off the training grounds. We knew what we were running, played it back post, and it was a good header," mentioned Dieterle. When asked how it felt to get that contribution to the win, Dieterle answered with, "It felt good, we knew what we had to do. The vibes of the team are high, and we just have to ride out the rest of the season, get conference wins, and go from there."

Up Next on the Schedule:

• WNE will travel to Gordon College on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 3:00 PM for the next conference clash.