by Nicole Belair, Staff Writer
The men’s soccer team beat the Coast Guard Academy last Tuesday, followed by a loss at Plymouth State to finish out the season.
The Corsairs fell behind early on Tuesday, but stole the lead from the Coast Guard Academy Bears with two minutes to spare.
The Bears found the back of the net early, when Alex Lane took a corner kick fourteen minutes in. He found Austin Read, who connected on a header to put it into the bottom right corner of the net.
Moments later, UMass Dartmouth junior, Austin Dias, almost tied the game when he fired a shot from twelve yards out, but a Coast Guard defender saved the goal and cleared the ball from the goal line.
The Corsairs were able to tie it up about twenty minutes later, as senior captain, Matt Vidal, curved a free kick past the Coast Guard defense and into the top left corner of the net from twenty-nine yards away. The remaining ten minutes were scoreless, leading the teams into the second half tied at one.
The Bears didn’t have another solid chance to score until the 80th minute when Brock Hassett and Quintin Parsons kicked point-blank shots on goal, but UMass Dartmouth freshman Danny Andrade skillfully managed both saves.
As the last ten minutes ticked away, UMass Dartmouth seized the lead for good. Junior Fabio Araujo fired a free kick right outside the box, and Stephan Teixeira redirected the ball to Elvis Mendes. Mendes drove the ball into the bottom right corner of the net to win the game.
The Corsairs headed to New Hampshire on Saturday for their next game, taking on Plymouth State for the final Little East Conference matchup.
The Plymouth State Panthers got on the board early, scoring a goal within the first four minutes of the game.
However, the Corsairs responded in the next two minutes, as Matt Vidal found Austin Dias for his ninth goal of the season, tying it up six minutes in. Vidal fired in a goal of his own at 19:10, sending the Corsairs into the lead.
At 23:21, Plymouth State’s, Nick Rutherford, scored his team’s second goal, tying it right back up. The next twenty minutes of the half were scoreless, sending the teams into the second half tied at two.
Seven minutes in, Panthers’ Joni Hongisto scored his team’s third goal with an assist by Colin Jerome. At 56:35, Luichi Villasmil scored another goal for the Panthers with an assist by Rutherford, increasing the Plymouth State lead to 4-2.
With just over ten minutes left in the game, Matt Vidal – with an assist by Tony Gonzalez – scored goal number sixteen for the season and cut into the Panthers’ lead. The Panthers took four more shots, but two were wide and two were saved by goalie Danny Andrade. Nevertheless, they were able to hold off the Corsairs for the final minutes of the game, and the final score was 4-3.
This was the final game for UMass Dartmouth. They wrapped up the year strong, with an overall record of 11-6-1 and 3-3-1 in the Conference.