MILTON, Mass. – The Curry College men's soccer team outlasted the Mass. Maritime Buccaneers in a 3-2 thriller on Wednesday night. Three second half goals were enough to keep the Colonels ahead of their surging guests. The win moves Curry to 1-2-0 while the Bucs sink to 0-1-1.
The Buccaneers came into the game with an aggressive style, accumulating seven fouls in the first 20 minutes, compared to just one on the Colonels. Neither team would push a score across in the first half, however, as both goalies collected a pair of stops.
The teams once again came out firing, launching five shots in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, leading to the Colonels breaking the nil-nil tie in the 59th minute. Off of a beautiful feed from freshman Richard Silva (Pompano Beach, Calif.) in traffic, Nolan Reimondo (Portland, Conn.) netted the first goal of the evening, giving the hosts a 1-0 advantage. Less than two minutes later, Kuda Muhlauri (Harare, Zimbabwe) doubled the lead by beating the Bucs goalie Mitch Hardy (Pepperell, Mass.). Credited with an assist on the goal was senior Ali Pungi (Kinshasa, Congo). Down by a pair, Mass. Maritime refused to roll over, netting their first score of the day thanks to good positioning by Liam McDonough (West Newbury, Mass.). However, in the 75th minute, the hosts reinstituted their two-goal edge thanks to Muhlauri's second tally of the night, this time off a helper from Jonathan Sarkis (East Walpole, Mass.). With eight minutes remaining on the clock, the Bucs pulled back to within one as McNeill Somers (Dorchester, Mass.) beat Curry keeper Paul DeMaio's (North Andover, Mass.) right side, off a cross from classmate Rob Rutkai (Annapolis, Md.). Despite the close score, the Colonels managed to hold their guests to just two shots over the final eight minutes, securing their first victory of the season.
Muhlauri topped the Colonels with his pair of scores, despite getting outshot by teammates Reimondo (3) and Brandon Rinaldi (Bethlehem, Conn., 3). Mass. Maritime had four players take a pair of shots each, but only Shane MacNeil (Braintree, Mass.) managed to direct them both on net. Hardy falls to 0-1-1 on the year after racking up four saves in 82 minutes in net, while his counterpart DeMaio (1-2-0) collected seven saves and his first win of the year.
The Colonels get back to work on Saturday, September 7, as they travel to face Dean College at 2:00 p.m. The Buccaneers will continue their search for their first win of the year as they stay on the road to take on Maine Maritime, as part of the 2019 Maritime Cup in Castine, Maine. The match is slated to start at 7:30 p.m.
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