Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Oct. 21, 2015) – Senior forward
Lucas Munoz (Hicksville, N.Y.) collected a seven-point day with three goals and an assist to lead the Molloy College men's soccer team to a 4-2 victory over UDC on Wednesday at the Dean G. Skelos Sports Complex in Rockville Centre. The win pushed the Lions' overall record to 10-3, with a 5-2 mark in East Coast Conference competition. With the loss, the Firebirds fall to 5-9-1 and 3-5 in ECC play.
A sluggish start to the contest was to be expected as both teams spent the majority of the opening ten minutes feeling each other out and observing formations. UDC got the first shot of the contest in the fifth minute, but junior forward Mehdi Badache (Tunis, Tunisia) lifted a header just over the crossbar in the sixth minute. Molloy answered with an attempt from junior forward
Kyle Poetzsch (Hicksville, N.Y.) that was saved by senior keeper Louis Connor (Birmingham, England). The Lions eventually struck for a goal from the senior Munoz at the 10:16 mark of the opening half. The Hicksville native was sent on a perfectly hit through ball by junior attacker
Mosiah Whyte (Coram, N.Y.), and the senior notched his fifth goal by beating a charging Connor to the left of the keeper and into the lower corner of the net. The Firebirds attempted to answer back but shots by junior Victor Furio (Valencia, Spain) and Maurice Schwab (Vornholz Weg, Germany) were stoned by red-shirt freshman keeper
Stephen Tappeto (Merrick, N.Y.).
Munoz would factor into the next two scoring plays as he recorded his brace in the 31
st minute off of another feed from Whyte. This time, the senior sent a firecracker past Connor, looping around the senior keeper and into the right side of the net for his second goal of the game. Less than a minute later, Munoz kept a ball inside the out-of-bounds line and lifted it around Connor with his head. The flick-on found Poetzsch inside the six-yard box, and the junior picked up his team-leading 11
th marker of the year by thundering a shot into the top center of the netting to give Molloy a 3-0 advantage late in the first half. UDC cut the deficit as Schwab sent in a rocket from about 25 yards out with just two minutes to go, bringing the Firebirds to within a 3-1 score.
An eventful first half was followed by a ho-hum second half as the first ten minutes produced only one real quality chance from UDC's Aaron Noel (D'abadie, Trinidad and Tobago). Tappeto was up to the task and made the stop and Molloy continued to hold a two-goal lead. Contentious and chippy play followed with minimal results until the Firebirds struck at the 65
th minute. Schwab sent in a textbook cross to the head of senior forward Moussa Traore (Silver Spring, Md.), with the header finding the right side of the net for the marker. Molloy nearly got the insurance goal back as Whyte lifted a left-footed strike that nicked the crossbar and sailed away at the 67:10 mark of the second frame.
UDC would continue to press in hopes of obtaining the equalizer, but Molloy put on just enough pressure to grab the insurance marker from a familiar source. After red-shirt senior
Lester Franco (Bay Shore, N.Y.) lifted a feed to the Firebirds' 18-yard box, Whyte launched a shot at a near-zero angle that clanged off the post. The fortuitous bounce found the foot of Munoz, who blasted home his third goal of the game and seventh of the season. The hat trick also was the first one scored by a Molloy men's soccer player at home since
Jose Batista scored three in a 4-1 win over New Haven on Oct. 22, 2009. The goal also proved to be the final score of the competition as Molloy would cruise to the victory.
The Lions were outshot by their opponents by a 21-15 margin and also took one corner kick while allowing the Firebirds to have five opportunities from the corner flag. Tappeto had another good game in net for the Lions, making eight saves to keep UDC from scoring eight goals as it did in the first-ever matchup between the two teams back in 2012. For UDC, Connor made four saves and Schwab took a team-high five shots and had four shots on target in the losing effort.
The Molloy College men's soccer team hosts Bridgeport on Saturday (Oct. 24) at 12 p.m. in the Lions' home finale at Skelos Sports Complex. Be sure to follow along at
www.MolloyLions.com for a full audio/video broadcast of the game and complimentary live stats if you cannot make it out to Darcy Field for all the action.
