WATERVILLE — The vuvuzelas were at full blast at The Black Field, and with good reason.

The Thomas College men’s soccer team defeated Husson 3-0 on Saturday night to win the North Atlantic Conference title.

“It feels great,” Thomas forward Kenny Cano said. “Coming together as a team, we worked hard from day one, and hard work pays off.”

The Terriers are 15-2-2 and on a nine-game winning streak. They will find out next week who their opponent will be in the NCAA Division III tournament.

“For these guys, it’s a dream come true,” Thomas coach Christopher Parsons said. “They get a new facility like this and at the same time win a conference championship on it. We’re really excited at this point in time.”

The Eagles (15-5-0) were aggresive at the start and nearly scored within the first minute when Jacob Sirois’ header hit the top of the post. The Terriers battled back and started to put pressure in the Husson end of the field, finally scoring when Michael Hand took a Cano pass and beat Husson goalie Brian Potter, an Erskine Academy graduate, with over six minutes left in the first half.

Thomas consistently pressured Husson in the second and Cano made it 2-0 12 minutes into the half. Hand was credited with an assist on the play.

The Terriers iced the game six minutes later, when Khamisi Lightbourne hit a shot that was deflected off a Husson player and into the net.

“We started really strong, kept them from starting really strong, but we just couldn’t put a goal in,” Husson head coach Jeff Gettler said. “As the game flattened out, I think we just got tired because we couldn’t make passes. A good part of the second half we just gave the ball away.”

Thomas outshot the Eagles 16-8. Terriers goalkeeper Mikkail Crockwell made two saves and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

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