Jiana Brace Bests AMCATS

Chicopee, MA – The Elms Blazers men's soccer team won their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest against the visiting Anna Maria College Amcats Wednesday evening 4-2.

THE BASICS:

SCORE: AMC 2 | Elms 4
RECORDS: AMC (2-8-1, 2-4-0 GNAC) | Elms (5-7-0, 4-5-0 GNAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

The Blazers got on the board in the first five minutes by a header from Jonathan Roach (Norwalk, CT) to Musa Jiana (Brikama, Gambia) who flicked the ball to Justin Szwajkowski (Westhampton, MA) for the finish outside of the box to put the home team on top, 1-0.

In the 24^th minute, Lance Peterkin (Bloomfield, CT) pinged a 50-yard pass to Roach, who took it in stride to beat the Amcats keeper one-on-one to put the Blazers up 2-0 at the half.

Trailing 2-0 early in the second half, Anna Maria freshman midfielder Rubelsi Moran found junior forward Hezekiah Adeyeye to cut the lead in half.

After a few Blazer shots and near misses, Jiana would score again on a pass from Roach for the far post shot that bounced off of the post across the goal line to put the Blazers up 3-1.

Anna Maria would counter with another goal of their own as Moran scored again.

With the game coming down to the wire and the Blazers up 3-2, the Amcats had an opportunity to tie the score with a one-on-one play but Blazers goalkeeper Collin Liedke (Newington, CT) made the save to secure the lead.

In the 89^th minute, the home team secured the win on a far-post goal from Jiana to win 4-2. The play was assisted by Devon Polletta (Prospect, CT) and Dante Polletta (Prospect, CT).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

- Jiana led the Blazers with 9 shots on the day

- Szwajkowski and Roach both saw multiple shots

- Collin Liedke had 9 saves for the match

FROM THE DESK OF COACH WYSOCKI:

"It's a great response to a tough week. As a team, we talked about the little things, the small differences between winning games and losing games. The physical side of the game with the technical play. You need to be willing to do the dirty work as much as you want to make the nice pass and dribble past players and shoot from distance. We wanted to bring that passion today, and we absolutely did. It was a different atmosphere out there within the team. A different feeling. There are still a few things to tighten up, ways to stay sharp over 90 minutes, but we're very pleased with the performance and result as a whole." 

UP NEXT:

- The Blazers will visit another GNAC opponent, Johnson & Wales, on Saturday 10/9 for a 1:00pm start.

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