Box Score BOSTON – The Norwich University men's soccer team fell dropped a 4-2 decision to Wentworth Institute of Technology on Wednesday afternoon at Sweeney Field in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) New England Tournament Quarterfinal action.
Junior forward Jacob Zimmerman (Litchfield, N.H.) and sophomore forward Chase Hainey (Fryeburg, Maine) each scored a goal for Norwich (12-8-1), but it wasn't enough as the Cadets were knocked out of the ECAC Tournament for the second straight year in the quarterfinal round.
"I'm very proud of the team performance today," said NU head coach Kyle Dezotell. "Wentworth is a really good team and we gave them all they could handle on their field which is a difficult place to play. We were really excited for the opportunity when we received the ECAC bid as we were disappointed with ourselves with our performance at Johnson & Wales in the GNAC semifinal."
Zimmerman scored his team-leading 12th goal of the year at the 7:09 mark of the first half to give Norwich an early lead. Zimmerman took a pass from Moab Schiers (South Weber, Utah) and went bar down to the left side upper 90 of the net to put the Cadets out front 1-0 against the No. 2-seeded Leopards.
Wentworth's Noah Martins tied the game up in the 39th minute with a shot that bounced off a NU defender and into the right corner of the net. The two teams were deadlocked 1-1 going into halftime with Wentworth (15-5) holding a 12-6 shot advantage.
The Leopards struck quickly at the start of the second half with two goals in the first 11 minutes from Alec Watkinson and Alberto Benhamu to take a 3-1 lead.
Norwich wouldn't go away quietly though as Hainey scored his ninth goal of the season in the 75th minute off a setup from Zimmerman and Ethan Melia (Shrewsbury, Mass.). Zimmerman passed to the outside to Melia who sent a cross that got past the Wentworth goalkeeper and Hainey was there to tap home the ball into an empty net to cut the deficit to 3-2.
With 15 minutes to play, Norwich frantically pushed to try and find the equalizer by taking defenders off the field for attacking players. Wentworth withstood Norwich's attack and countered on a break for the fourth goal by Martins in the 87th minute to clinch the victory for the Leopards.
"The last 15 minutes today at 3-2 were intense and a great battle," Dezotell said. "We took a gamble taking off two defenders with five minutes left and ultimately Wentworth countered and caught us on the break to score the fourth goal with three minutes remaining to finish the game. With such a young team, this tournament opportunity was an invaluable experience that will help us immensely in the future."
Wentworth outshot Norwich 21-14. Freshman goalkeeper Stefan Skoff (San Jose, Calif.) made four saves for the Cadets to fall to 12-8-1 on the year. Matthew Sekerak made three saves for Wentworth to improve to 14-3-0 on the season.
Norwich was making its fifth straight ECAC New England Tournament appearance and fell short of advancing to the semifinal round for the third time over that span.
Wednesday's game marked the final game in the careers of Christian Albrecht (Albuquerque, N.M.), Zach Garcia (Yuma, Ariz.), Eric Beecy (Stowe, Vt.) and Eddie Ramirez (Gresham, Ore.)
