Men's Soccer Takes Double Overtime Thriller Over Newbury

Chris Kendrick (@CKendrick86)

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Elms College men's soccer team captured a 2-1 double overtime victory over visiting Newbury College in a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) matchup at Leary Field Tuesday night. With the win, the Blazers improve to 4-9 overall, and 2-1 in conference play, while the Nighthawks suffer their first conference loss, dropping to 3-1 in league play, and 7-7 on the season.

After 50 minutes of scoreless play, the Nighthawks cracked the scoreboard with 38:56 remaining in the contest as junior German Canales (Lynn, Mass.) played a ball through the Blazers defensive back line, finding freshman Nick Valdario (Winchester, Mass.), who beat Elms senior goalkeeper Christian Kostka (Oxford, Conn.) with a low shot to the right side, staking the Nighthawks to a 1-0 lead.

At the 21:06 mark of the second half, Newbury was whistled for a handball inside their goal box, resulting in a penalty kick for the Blazers. On the penalty kick attempt, Elms senior Connor O'Grady (Somers, Conn.) registered his first goal of the season with a rocket past Newbury freshman keeper Jarrod Smith (Watertown, N.Y.), knotting the game at 1-1. The contest headed to overtime tied at 1-1.

In the first overtime period, the Nighthawks had a chance to take the win, but Kostka made a diving save on an attempt from Newbury junior Ethan Forrest (East Bridgewater, Mass.) to maintain the 1-1 score, sending the contest to a second overtime period. With 4:03 remaining in the game, Blazers sophomore Donald Whittle (Somers, Conn.) gathered a loose ball at the top of the box and ripped a shot out of the reach of Smith and into the back of the net, giving Elms the 2-1 victory.

"This was a good win in a very big conference game for us," said Elms College Head Coach Ben Masse. "I felt like we were on [Newbury] early, and had opportunities to pull away. I felt that we dominated play and dominated the scoreboard. Our defense played well tonight, they shifted together, and had a solid first half of play. Things opened up in the second half, so there were more gaps in the defense, and they allowed a little bit more, but that's to be expected in a game like this. We have a tendency to try and find the perfect shot, and sometime the perfect shot is not wide open and it's in traffic, and when we shoot, success follows, so I'd like us to take more chances. We aren't going to be awarded penalty kicks very often, so we needed to capitalize on our opportunities, and we did that today."

The Blazers doubled the shot output of Newbury, 22-11, during the contest. Kostka stopped three shots in the win, while Smith made a game-high eight saves for the Nighthawks.

Elms will look to remain in the win column with a conference road trip to Lesley University Saturday afternoon for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff. Newbury hosts Wheelock College in NECC action Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

ELMS SOCCER