Men's Soccer Outlasted By Newbury On The Road

MEDFORD, Mass. - A pair of goals by Nighthawks freshman Nilton De Andrade (Boston, Mass.) helped lead the way for Newbury in their 4-2 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) victory over Elms College on a chilly Tuesday night at Hormel Stadium. The Blazers move to 2-11 on the season, and 2-2 in conference action, while Newbury improves to 2-2 in the NECC, and 8-6-1 overall.

De Andrade opened the scoring in the 31^st minute, burying a goal into an empty net after a miscommunicated back pass attempt by the Elms defense. De Andrade calmly finished the goal, giving the Nighthawks the 1-0 lead.

Newbury would double their advantage on a penalty-kick goal from freshmanEstevao Gomes (Boston, Mass.) in the 41^st minute, striking the ball into the low-right corner, away from the diving Tyler Graves (Monson, Mass.), for his first career tally and would send the Nighthawks into halftime with a 2-0 lead.

Elms College would come back strong and finally breakthrough in the 63^rdminute when senior Scott Labrie (Southampton, Mass.) found himself alone at the top of the penalty area and buried his first goal of the season, assisted on the play by Joseph Larkin (Williamsburg, Mass.) cutting the Newbury lead to 2-1.

The Nighthawks held their ground for a couple of minutes following the Blazers goal and managed to put the game in their control with two goals in 52 seconds. First, freshman Alex Strafer (Auburn, Mass.) scored on his own rebound, which was cleared off the line by Elms, to make the match 3-1.

Then De Andrade added his second of the game, on a pass from Alex Davis(Gloucester, Mass.) to bump the lead to 4-1. For Strafer, it's his fifth goal of the year and first in over a month. De Andrade's tally gave him his league-leading 12^th of the year.

Blazers junior CJ Dabkowski (Bristol, Conn.) would make the match 4-2 in the late stages, knocking home a penalty kick in the 88^th minute, for his fourth on the season.

Sophomore Jarrod Smith (Watertown, N.Y.) got the start for the Nighthawks, and was called on often to keep the Blazers from coming back, including a critical save on a Dabkowski breakaway in the 82^nd minute, to keep the match at 4-1.

Smith gets credit for the win and improves to 5-5-1 in his nine save performance. Tyler Graves gets credit for the loss, dropping his record to 2-6-0, despite his match-high eight saves.

The Blazers will look to move back into the win column when they host Lesley in NECC play at Leary Field Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Newbury travels to Wheelock College for an NECC match scheduled to kick-off at noon Saturday.

Source: (Newbury College Athletics)