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LOWELL, Mass. – Behind two second-half goals, the No. 13 UMass Lowell (13-1-2, 5-1-1) men's soccer team defeated the Hartford Hawks, 2-1, to capture the first America East Regular Season Championship in the University's history since joining the conference in 2013, on Senior Night.

The regular-season title is the second in program history, and the first since the 2008 squad won the Northeast-10 regular season.
 
"It's exciting, it's an exciting time for this program right now," commented Head Coach Christian Figueroa. "I'm so happy for the kids, and I couldn't be happier for the seniors right now, it's so overwhelming for me. Those four guys came in knowing what they were in for and that this was the one thing they could play for, and here we are. I'm out of words really, I'm just so excited and happy for the guys."
 
After a scoreless first half, Ivan Blaskic (Zagreb, Croatia) scored his second goal of the season in the 47th minute, after a Dario Jovanovski (Zagreb, Croatia) corner bounced through the box to his countryman. Blaskic was waiting for the loose ball at the penalty spot and poked it home.
 
The River Hawks owned all of the chances in the first half, getting off six shots and holding Hartford to only two. Ivan Abramovic (Zagreb, Croatia) hit the crossbar with a bicycle kick in the 28th minute, and had an angled shot saved by Jimmy Slayton in the 42nd.
 
Senior Wuilito Fernandes (Praia, Cape Verde) capped off his career with his fifth game-winning goal of the season in the 66th minute to send the crowd and bench into a frenzy. The team's leading scorer received a long pass from Abramovic in the 18-yard box and held off a defender to deposit the shot into the bottom right corner for his 11th tally of the season.
 
Moments before the decisive goal, in almost the same exact fashion Fernandes drilled the left post and Slayton was able to corral the rebound.
 
The Hawks got on the scoreboard in the 71st minute to cut the deficit to 2-1, but UMass Lowell's defense did not allow another shot in the contest. The River Hawks outshot the guests 16-4, and only allowed the one shot on goal.
 
Austin Kroll (Baltimore, Md.) earned his 26th career victory in net to move 12 away from tying the all-time mark of 26, set by Bobby Ritter (2002-05). Fernandes' 11 tallies in the season place him in a tie for third all-time, and he will end his career in eighth place in total points (60) and goals (25).
 
The championship marked the end of the careers of the first class of players that played all four years in Division I: Fernandes, Eric Martin (Danvers, Mass.), Mauricio Escobar (Lowell, Mass.) and Carlos Ruiz (East Boston, Mass.)
 
Following the best season in program history, the squad set a new program-high with an .875 winning percentage.