Box Score MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Norwich University men's soccer team held perennial powerhouse Middlebury College scoreless for nearly 60 minutes, however the Panthers rallied to score four unanswered goals in the second half to down the Cadets 4-1 on Wednesday afternoon.
Senior forward Jacob Zimmerman (Litchfield, N.H.) scored his third goal of the season and the 42nd of his career to give Norwich a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute and its first goal against Middlebury since 2009.
Zimmerman finished off an impressive build-up by the Norwich offense after Colin Lozito (Wilmington, Vt.) dribbled the ball forward on a long run from the midfield. He dished off to the right wing to Greg Zydanowicz (Newington, Conn.), who sent a pass into the box that deflected off a Middlebury defender and onto the foot of Zimmerman. The Cadets' two-time reigning goal-scoring leader did the rest, placing the ball into the left corner of the net, past the outstretched arm of Greg Sydor.
The Cadets (1-2, 0-0 GNAC) maintained the lead to halftime, despite being outshot 10-3 in the first half. Norwich continued to hold on even with Middlebury turning up the pressure at the start of the second half.
However, Middlebury finally broke through with a header goal off a corner kick service from Adam Glaser. Kyle Moffat picked up the goal after leaping at the far post and heading the ball just inside the left post at the 57:57 mark.
Middlebury (1-0, 0-0 NESCAC) opened it up from there with Glaser scoring less than four minutes later and then assisting on another goal three minutes after that to give the Panthers three goals in a span of seven minutes.
Glaser scored in the 62nd minute with a breakaway goal off an assist from Daniel O'Grady. Philip Skayne scored in the 65th minute off an assist from Glaser to put the game away for good.
Tom Dils added an insurance goal in the 72nd minute with another header goal off a corner kick service from Drew Goulart to cap the scoring in the game.
Norwich pulled starter Ryan Fitzpatrick (Milbury, Mass.) after the fourth goal and put in freshman Alex Grant (South Yarmouth, Mass.) for his first collegiate minutes. Fitzpatrick made four saves to fall to 1-2 on the year. Grant was untested in his 16 minutes of action.
Sydor picked up the victory for Middlebury after making two saves. Middlebury outshot Norwich 21-6.
Norwich returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 10 when it travels to Emmanuel to kick off its 2016 GNAC season schedule.
