EASTON, Mass. - Senior back Adrián Díaz (Santiago de Compostela, Spain/Vermont Academy) buried a go-ahead 68th-minute free kick, his fourth goal in five games, to lift the Saint Michael's College men's soccer team past Stonehill College, 2-1, on Saturday at Skyhawk Field. The Purple Knights are 4-7-1 overall and 2-7 in the Northeast-10 Conference, while the hosts slipped to 4-9-1 and 1-8.

Junior Cole McIntire (Eliot, Maine/Marshwood) also scored for Saint Michael's, which won at Stonehill for the first time since Oct. 28, 2009. First-year Leland Gazo (Colchester, Vt./Rice Memorial/Bradley) recorded two stops, as nine of the last 12 series meetings have now been decided by one goal or less.

For Stonehill, which has lost six of its past seven games by a single goal, senior Adam Branco scored and classmate Conor McDonough registered three stops in the opening 82:32. First-year Jeremy Zielinski went untested down the stretch, as Saint Michael's held advantages of 12-4 in shots and 6-4 in corner kicks.

McIntire nearly put his team on the board in the sixth minute, firing the first shot of the game from 10 yards out toward the Stonehill net, where it was cleared off the line by a Skyhawk field player. He slipped another bid wide of the left post from a difficult angle in the 10th minute. Branco countered at the 12-minute mark, taking junior Stephen Vercollone's cross from the left side at the near post and stepping by a defender to tally.

McIntire found the equalizer at 28:54, receiving sophomore Jake Bannon's (Clifton, Va./Paul VI Catholic) header through ball that skipped past two defenders and shooting from the right side. Sophomore Andres Rivas' (Caracas, Venezuela/Palmer Trinity School) dangerous corner kick entry in the 31st minute was punched away by McDonough and cleared out of danger before senior Brendan Todd's (Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J./Green Mountain Valley School) low shot from 30 yards was scooped by the keeper in the 39th minute.

McIntire was denied when McDonough went low to his right on a close-range attempt during the 60th minute, and sophomore back Brady Channell (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh) bent a drive from outside the box wide of the right post in the 65th minute. Díaz struck soon thereafter, driving his free kick from the center of the field low through the wall, where it was redirected in at 67:20. Branco challenged Gazo twice in the 84th minute but was stopped both times, including on a header that the netminder tipped over the crossbar at 83:50. The ensuing corner kick produced no tying shots, nor did a Stonehill corner early in the 89th minute.

The Purple Knights host three of their final four regular-season games, beginning against American International College on Wednesday at 3 p.m.