Coming off a disheartening loss in Saturday’s game against Eastern Connecticut, the men’s soccer team defeated Western Connecticut State University by a score of 2-1 on Sunday. The two teams battled for control throughout the first half with the score still 0-0 as time expired.
Senior forward Andy Budelman, (Rochester, NH) felt the teams disappointment from Saturday’s loss, which took them out of conference playoff contention, affected the teams play.
“We were down from yesterday. We came into this game very disheartened.” said Budelman.
USM put the score in their favor in the second half when Budelman netted the first goal of game driving a shot over the head of Western Connecticut’s goal keeper Paul Melitsanopoulos (Norwalk, CT) in the 59th minute. Budelman said the team realized they needed to step it up after a talk at half time.
While the Huskies gained confidence from the goal, Western Connecticut countered scoring just two minutes later on a shot partially deflected by USM keeper Jeff Gray (Scarborough, ME) as he dove to make the save.
The game continued deadlocked at 1-1 as the Huskies made several runs on goal in hopes of ending their regular season with a win.
With only seven minutes left to play, Kevin Colwell netted the game-winning goal for the Huskies.
Colwell gained possession of a loose ball on the left side of the field, shot from inside the eighteen yard line and put the ball into the right side of the net past the reach of Melitsanopoulos.
While Coach Miller didn’t feel the team played up to their potential he said they really pulled it together in the second half.
The Huskies will not qualify for the LEC tournament but could still get a bid into the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament. Though it was a disappointment not to make the LEC tournament, Miller is proud of his team’s success in the regular season.
“I was very optimistic coming into this year. We had a great season and we accomplished a lot.” said Miller.