Philadelphia, Pa. - (12/13/2017) – The Chestnut Hill College men's soccer team finished the 2017 season – first under Head Coach Zack Ssebatindira – with a 5-12 (4-8 CACC) overall record. For the second straight season, senior midfielder Joseph Casaletto (Sewell, N.J.) finished as the team leader in points, totaling a career-high 17 with eight goals and an assist. He provided a pair of game-winners in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) victories over Nyack College (3-1 on 9/30) and Felician University (3-0 on 10/21), while additional deciding tallies came from junior forward Jason Doherty (Letterkenny Donegal, Ireland) (9/6 @ New York Institute of Technology), senior forward Zachary Gray (West Sussex, England) (9/9 vs. Caldwell University), and junior forward Jason Burns (Douglassville, Pa.) (9/16 vs. Dominican College).
 
Chestnut Hill College (5-12, 4-8) earned their first win of the season in their third game, on Wednesday, September 6, when sophomore defender Paris Bruhn (Horst Holstein, Germany) located Doherty just after the 38-minute mark (38:04) of a 1-0 victory at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). In addition to earning the Griffins' their first win of 2017, Doherty's tally gave Coach Ssebatindira his first career win and sophomore goalkeeper Frank Maniscalco (Philadelphia, Pa.) - who made five saves - his first collegiate shutout.
 
The Griffins next triumph came just three days later, on Saturday, September 9, when senior midfielder Vini Brito (Sao Paulo, Brazil) offered a stellar performance in a 5-1 CACC victory against Caldwell University. Brito scored Chestnut Hill College's last three goals for his first hat trick as a member of the Scarlet and Gold. The Griffins, who dismantled the Cougars defensive strategy earlier in the affair, overcame an own goal at the two-minute mark (0-1 @ 2:00) with succeeding tallies from Casaletto (1-1 @ 4:22) and Gray (2-1 @ 5:14) establishing a 2-1 Scarlet and Gold advantage.
 
Brito and Maniscalco were honored on the CACC Men's Soccer Weekly Report (9/11) for their performance in the wins over the Bears and the Lightning; the former earned Honor Roll recognition and the latter garnered the CACC Goalkeeper of the Week title.

A week later, on Saturday, September 16, Dominican College stole an early 1-0 lead in the 18^th minute (18:47) and protected their advantage until the 85^th minute. That is when Burns put his head to good use on the equalizer, 1-1 (85:02). He struck again a little more than four minutes later (89:11) to give Chestnut Hill College the lead, 2-1, with only seconds remaining in the Griffins' third win of the season. The great individual performance landed Burns on the CACC Men's Soccer Weekly Honor Roll (8/18).
 
On Saturday, September 30, Casaletto did what he does best – score game-winning-goals – as the Chestnut Hill College captain collected a long serve from junior midfielder Tales Domingues (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and beat a Nyack College defender for the clincher (35:22) of a 2-0 final. Casaletto – who garnered a spot on the CACC Men's Soccer Weekly Honor Roll (10/2) for his production - was the second of two seniors to score in the affair, which served as Senior Day and a Red Card Cancer event; the other was senior forward Mike Buscemi (Rockville, Md.) who won a ping-pong competition for the Griffins' first goal (1-0 @ 15:05).
 
Staying alive in the battle for CACC postseason play, Chestnut Hill College captured a 3-0 league win over Felician University on Saturday, October 21, thanks to Casaletto's first career hat trick. Casaletto intercepted and scored a pass back to the Golden Falcon goalkeeper at 18:58 (1-0), and then completed a Burns pass at 41:39 (2-0), before converting a penalty kick opportunity at 79:15 (3-0) in a tremendous individual performance that earned him his second CACC Men's Soccer Weekly Honor Roll (10/23) appearance. Unfortunately, the late-season win was not enough to usher the Griffins into the CACC Championship Tournament.
 
Casaletto scored his eight goals on a team-high 45 shots (.178 SH%). In addition to both recording hat tricks, Casaletto and Brito both were 1-for-2 (.500) on penalty kick opportunities. Brito finished the season with nine points on the merit of four goals and an assist. Burns offered five points (2 goals, 1 assist), while Buscemi (2 goals), Gray (1 goal, 2 assists), and Bruhn (4 assists) totaled four points apiece. Doherty added an assist to his early-season game-winner. Additional points were provided by freshman Miguel Marra (Ossining, N.Y.) (1 goal), Domingues (2 assists), and sophomore defenseman Michael Roscioli (Turnersville, N.J.) (1 assist).
 
Maniscalco was the Griffins' primary goalkeeper, compiling a 5-9 record and a pair of shutouts on a 2.38 goals-against-average (GAA). He made 63 saves with a 67.0 save percentage (SV%). Freshman Sergio Hernandez (Ossining, N.Y.) made three starts in six appearances. He finished the season 0-3 with 16 saves on a 2.25 GAA and a 64.0 SV%.