Box Score
BEVERLY, Mass. – Down 1-0 at halftime to Rhode Island College, the Endicott men’s soccer team played with the man advantage for almost the entire second half and managed the tie the game once, but not twice as RIC’s goal in the 55th minute proved to the game-winner in a 2-1 loss for the Gulls at Endicott Stadium.
Endicott drops to 0-4 on the season overall with a 0-1 record in CCC play while RIC improved to 2-3.
At the 21:39 mark of the first half, Anchormen sophomore midfielder Ignacio Cespedes (Fitchburg, Mass.) received a short pass through the middle of the box from senior midfielder Hector Fortuno (Malaga, Spain) and sent a low shot past the Endicott keeper to put RIC up 1-0.
Nearly two minutes into the second half, the Gulls saw sophomore forward Alex Elia (Somers, Conn.) earn a breakaway opportunity but with the RIC keeper rushing out to defend, Elia pushed his shot just wide right of the post.
At 50:05, a red card issued to RIC freshman Patrick LaRoche (Gardner, Mass.) changed the complexity of the match as the Anchormen had to play man-down for the remainder of the half.
Endicott would tie the match at 1-1 in the 53rd minute on a deep throw in pass by freshman Jed Magnusson (Kingston, N.H.) that was deflected by freshman Stephen Joyce (Rome, N.Y.) and headed to the back of the net by freshman Ben Streib (Ellington, Conn.) for the Blue and Green’s first goal of the season.
Eighty seconds later, however, the Anchormen responded with the game-winning goal senior forward Mike Patriarca (Warren, R.I.) who received a cross pass, left-to-right, from Emmanuel Asiedu (Lincoln, R.I.). It was Patriarca’s first goal of the season.
The Blue and Green nearly tied the score on right-footed attempt by sophomore Bobby Durben (Stow, Mass.) but his shot rolled just to the right of the post.
In goal for the Gulls, freshman Aaron Kanter (Medfield, Mass.) made three saves while his counterpart senior Nick Clarke (East Bridgewater, Mass.) recorded four saves between the posts for the win.
Endicott travels to Curry on Saturday, September 17th for an 11:00 am match with the Colonels in CCC action. RIC goes on the road to Eastern Connecticut State University on the same day at 1:00 pm for their first Little East match of the season.