Box Score NEWTON, Mass. – The Norwich University men's soccer team lost for the third time in heart-breaking overtime fashion this season on Wednesday afternoon.
Mount Ida's Nick Vreeland scored in the 97th minute to lift the Mustangs to a dramatic come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Norwich. The win boosted Mount Ida (10-4-1, 6-1-1 GNAC) into sole possession of second place in the GNAC standings and dropped Norwich (10-5-1, 6-2-0 GNAC) to third.
Vreeland slammed home his second goal of the year on a feed from Jordain Williams to lift Mount Ida to its second straight regular season win over Norwich.
Norwich looked like it was in line to win after sophomore Colin Lozito (Wilmington, Vt.) finished off a crossing pass from the right from Jacob Zimmerman (Litchfield, N.H.) to give the Cadets a 2-1 lead with just over six minutes left.
However, it took less than three minutes after Norwich took the lead for Mount Ida senior Carlos Martinez to knot the game back up at two goals apiece with his fifth goal of the season.
After a scoreless first half in which the Mustangs were outshot 11-9 and got four saves from sophomore goalkeeper Riley Ford, Mount Ida needed just 2:05 to strike first blood when freshmen Alexi Flores and Juan Brenes hooked up. Flores threaded an incredible through ball between two Cadets defenders and Brenes ran onto it and slotted it past Norwich freshman Stefan Skoff (San Jose, Calif.) for his team-high ninth goal of the year.
The Cadets levelled in the 63rd minute through freshman Matt Mazzola's (Ridgefield, Conn.) first collegiate goal, which he ripped past Ford, who ended the game with 10 saves. The assist came from freshman Ethan Melia (Shrewsbury, Mass.), who played Mazzola the ball from the left side.
With both teams battling to get their noses in front, Lozito looked to deliver the win late for the Cadets, wrong-footing Ford on a touch shot on a feed from junior Zimmerman. It was Lozito's second goal of the season.
Martinez saved the Green and White's hopes when he took a pass from Brenes, who had made a run down the left side of the field and tucked the ball up high under the crossbar to level the teams again.
Vreeland's game-winner in the first extra period lifted Mount Ida to 3-0-1 in overtime games this season. Norwich dropped to 1-3-1 in overtime games.
Skoff ended the game with four saves and fell to 10-5-1 on the season, while Ford improves to 8-4-1 between the pipes for the Mustangs.
Norwich heads to Saint Joseph's Maine on Saturday at noon in a GNAC tilt that will go far in determining seeding for the postseason. The Cadets need at least a tie in order to lock up the No. 3 seed in the GNAC Playoffs. With a loss, NU would drop to fourth place and Saint Joseph's Maine would take over third. Norwich will host a quarterfinal game on Sunday, Nov. 1 regardless of Saturday's outcome.
