SALEM, Mass. – The Endicott men's soccer team traveled over the Salem Bridge on Saturday afternoon to face North Shore rival Salem State in a North Shore Cup matchup. Senior Alex Elia (Somers, Conn.) came up big in the first minute of extra time to send the Gulls home with a 3-2 win after a rally to comeback after they were trailing 0-2. Endicott now sits at 2-2 while the Vikings stand at 0-2.
In the first frame the Vikings contested early as senior Salmir Zepaj (Peabody, Mass.) was awarded a penalty kick at 11:37 after junior Abdulla Al Khalifa (Riffa, Bahrain) caused a foul in the box to put Salem State on the board. Endicott worked hard in the final third to answer back with a point-blank shot by Elia but junior goalkeeper Nondas Kargakis (Herkalion, Greece) was able to come up with the save. At 28:13 the Vikings went up by two as junior Max Modestin (Salem, Mass.) handled a pass from Zepaj and made a quick move to slip it past sophomore goalkeeper Austin Peluso (Farmington, Conn.).
The Gulls did not go away quietly as freshman Edwin Demoya (Salem, Mass.) started the rally for the Blue and Green when he scored his first goal of the season as he took a pass from senior Brett Longobucco (Torrington, Conn.) to blast it past Kargakis to cut the lead down to one. The rest of the frame ended with little excitement as the Vikings led Endicott going into the break.
The second frame was all about the Gulls as they came right out in the beginning minutes forcing two corner kicks. They had several scoring opportunities including an open-net attempt in the box, and a cross-field kick that went off the post by Elia that almost tied the game. Keeping the pressure on the Vikings nearly the entire half, with strong midfield efforts from senior Ryan D'Amico (Marlborough, Conn.), the Gulls finally broke through when Zepaj was issued a red card, forcing Salem State to play a man down in the final 23 minutes. Al Khalifa almost tied the game on a free kick that hit the crossbar and was headed into the back of the net, but the put-back was disallowed due to an offsides call. Khalifa later got redemption scoring the equalizer on a penalty kick that tied the game at 2-2 with just over a minute remaining in regulation.
The overtime period ended almost as quickly as it began when Elia controlled a pass from Logobucco at 91:07 to blast it into the back of the net for the win. Endicott made a huge comeback after being down by two goals. They came together as one and rallied to come out on top.
The Gulls look to a home match on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM where they host Rhode Island College while Salem State will play host to Plymouth State on Wednesday. Today's match adds points in the Blue and Green's favor for the North Shore Cup which is awarded to the school with the most wins between the three institutions involved: Endicott, Salem State and Gordon College.
