Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – After battling to a 1-1 tie at the end of the first half, the Norwich University men's soccer team exploded for five goals in the second half to cruise past Suffolk University on Saturday in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action at Howard Field.
The Cadets (4-2-0, 2-0-0 GNAC) used a balanced offense with six different players scoring goals to wear down Suffolk (3-3-0, 1-2-0 GNAC) in the second half.
"We are very pleased to pick up a win on our Homecoming weekend," said NU head coach Kyle Dezotell who moved to within three wins of the all-time school record for career coaching victories. "The second half especially we played very well, created a lot of chances and scored some excellent goals."
Freshman midfielder Austen McGuire (Overland Park, Kansas) opened the scoring in the 26th minute by finishing off a chance created by a terrific setup from senior Garrett Shufelt (Clifton Park, N.Y.). Shufelt juked his way around a pair of Suffolk defenders before dishing it off to McGuire on his right side who deposited the ball into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
Suffolk answered less than 10 minutes later when senior midfielder Babacar Sembene blasted a shot from 30 yards out that caught Norwich sophomore goalkeeper Christian Hallstrom (Las Vegas, Nev.) off guard, beating him to his right after he got a hand on it to level the score at one.
Norwich needed less than three minutes to take the lead back for good in the second half when freshman midfielder Christian Albrecht (Albuquerque, N.M.) finished off a corner kick service from sophomore midfielder Chris Bristol (Clinton, Conn.) to put the Cadets up 2-1.
A little over five minutes later Norwich took advantage of an in-direct kick opportunity on Suffolk's six-yard box to push the lead to 3-1. Shufelt quickly put the ball back into play after the foul was called and pushed it to junior forward Joe Young (McLean, Va.) to his right allowing Young to blast the ball into a wide-open net while Suffolk was still trying to regroup.
However, once again Suffolk wouldn't go away quietly as Sembene tallied his second goal of the match on a penalty kick to cut the deficit to 3-2. Sembene hit a hard low shot that Hallstrom guessed right on but was only able to get a hand on it before it rolled into the back of the net.
Norwich responded once again though with three straight goals to put the game away for good. Junior forward Anthony Amell (Northfield, Vt.) sparked the scoring run by working a textbook give and go with classmate Eric Weir (Ipswich, Mass.) to regain the two-goal lead. Weir played a through ball to Amell who then crossed the ball back over to Weir on the right side of the penalty box. Weir tracked the ball down and then found Amell in front of the net who took the pass and side volleyed it into the back on the net on one touch.
Junior Billy Flanagan (Oxford, N.Y.) tallied his first goal of the season after missing the first five games. Shufelt picked up the assist to complete his tri-fecta of helpers on the day.
Sophomore Ryan Curley (East Haddam, Conn.) scored his first collegiate goal by heading home a corner kick service from Bristol in the 89th minute.
Suffolk's Jorge Panayotti capped the scoring by converting another penalty kick for the Rams to cut the Norwich lead to 6-3 with 15 seconds left in the game.
After getting outshot 8-7 in the first half, Norwich dominated the second half shots by a 16-4 margin. Hallstrom made three saves for NU to improve to 4-1 on the year. Suffolk's Nicholas Chamma stopped six shots to fall to 3-2 on the season.
The Cadets continue GNAC play on Wednesday when they travel to Lasell for a 4 p.m. kickoff. NU then returns home next weekend with matches on back-to-back days against Anna Maria and Johnson State.
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