Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Oct. 16, 2015) - In front of a fully-packed house at Darcy Field in Rockville Centre, the Molloy College men's soccer team treated a loyal and rowdy fan base to the delight of a 3-2 victory over Saint Thomas Aquinas in East Coast Conference competition Friday evening.
Molloy (9-3, 4-2 ECC) peppered shots at STAC goalkeeper Sean Connolly (Latham, N.Y.) from the opening whistle as junior forwards
Kyle Poetzsch (Hicksville, N.Y.) and
Mosiah Whyte (Coram, N.Y.) each took two shots in the first ten minutes of play. Whyte's second attempt, at the 9:09 mark of the first half, opened the scoring account to a roar from the fans in the stands. Red-shirt freshman back
Kenny Joseph (Great Neck, N.Y.) lifted a back-pass over the midfield line and down the near sideline to a streaking
Lester Franco (Bay Shore, N.Y.). Inside the 18-yard box, Franco slid a feed to Whyte at the top of the attacking zone as the junior would do the rest by throttling a shot into the lower left corner of the net.
The home side continued to feed off of the electric energy of the atmosphere by keeping the ball in the defensive zone, making Saint Thomas Aquinas (3-9-1, 1-5-1 ECC) double down on preventative measures to keep the Lions off the board again. Whyte would showcase skills and speed that whipped the crowd into a frenzy in the 33rd minute as the junior collected his second goal of the game to put Molloy up 2-0. Following a pass from Poetzsch, Whyte dribbled through the Spartans defense and turned on the after-burners to blaze past the back line before beating Connolly to the right side to secure the two-goal brace.
It appeared that Molloy would go into the halftime break up by two goals, but Saint Thomas Aquinas cut the deficit in half in the waning moments as freshman forward Chris Estevez (Garnerville, N.Y.) finished a feed from Yohan Loyer (Valbonne, France) with 20 seconds to play in the opening frame. That strike gave the Spartans a renewed sense of confidence that carried over into the second half, as STAC had six shots in the opening 25 minutes of the second half to Molloy's 1. But the Lions were not shaken by the pressure from the visitors out of Sparkill, as senior forward
Lucas Munoz (Hicksville, N.Y.) continued to buzz around the defense of the Spartans into the 71st minute.
Following a save by red-shirt freshman keeper
Stephen Tappeto (Merrick, N.Y.) on an Ivan Gomez (Elmhurst, N.Y.) volley, Munoz received the ball deep in STAC territory and went to work. The senior cut around his defender, keeping the ball from venturing over the touch line, and rocketed a shot into the top-center portion of the net for his fourth goal of the season. Saint Thomas Aquinas got the goal back eight minutes later as Luis Morales (Port Chester, N.Y.) found himself on the receiving end of a Gomez cross and shot one off of a Molloy defender and past Tappeto.
Molloy nearly took a 4-2 edge as Franco dribbled a ball around Connolly and deep into the 18-yard box. With a wide open net, Franco tried to score near side only to be denied by a hard-charging Morales who cleared the ball off the back line. Earlier, Poetzsch had a one-on-one breakaway but slid his attempt wide to the near side as well. The final chance for the Spartans came with about 90 seconds to play on a corner kick. The set piece found its way to Morales who lifted his shot somewhere around 20 feet over the crossbar, and Molloy prevailed in front of friends, family and all members of the Molloy community.
For the Lions, Whyte took seven shots and directed five on target in the match. His two goals give him 10 for the season and tie him with Poetzsch for the most goals on the team. Speaking of Poetzsch, the junior forward had four shots in the contest while Munoz took three shots and all of which were on target. In net, Tappeto made four saves to pick up his ninth win of the year.
The Molloy College men's soccer team will host UDC on Wednesday (Oct. 21) in a 4 p.m. matinee at Skelos Sports Complex. Be sure to follow www.MolloyLions.com for all the most up-to-date information, stats and game recaps concerning your Molloy Lions men's soccer program.
