Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Oct. 24, 2015) - The Molloy College men's soccer team celebrated Senior Day on Saturday in front of its fans, but the festivities were short-lived as the Lions lost a critical East Coast Conference tilt to Bridgeport by a 5-1 score at Skelos Sports Complex. The Purple Knights improved to 9-5 and 5-3 in the ECC standings while Molloy fell to 10-4 and maintains a similar 5-3 mark in conference competition.
The two sides struggled to find any early momentum, as neither team took a shot until the eighth minute of the opening frame. The Lions were the first to have several quality chances on net, but junior forward
Kyle Poetzsch (Hicksville, N.Y.) placed a header onto the crossbar at the 23:14 mark of the first half. Poetzsch would later have a breakaway against UB freshman keeper Daniel Coviella (Ribadesella, Spain), but the junior was denied by the near-side post after sliding his shot past his counterpart with 16 minutes to play. Immediately afterwards, junior forward Luka Ivanovic (Belgrade, Serbia) turned the contest into a showcase of his abilities by scoring the game's first goal on an acrobatic header off a free kick from Luis Fajardo (Danbury, Conn.). Ivanovic put the Purple Knights ahead in the 33rd minute, and Bridgeport would score a second goal before halftime in an eerily similar fashion. Fajardo sent a high, arcing left-footed free kick into the box and junior defender Rafael Torres (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) got just enough of a flick-on with his head to put the ball past red-shirt freshman keeper
Stephen Tappeto (Merrick, N.Y.) for his second goal of the year. Molloy answered back with lightning-quick speed as Poetzsch won a header on a cross from fellow forward
Mosiah Whyte (Coram, N.Y.) and beat Coviella 27 seconds after Molloy went down by a pair of goals. The junior attacker picked up his 12th marker of the year to cap the scoring in the first half on both sides as Molloy trailed 2-1.
Poetzsch nearly knotted the score up two minutes into the second half, as he placed a ball with his head onto the back line at the 47:35 mark that was steered aside by midfielder Najja Forbes (Couva, Trinidad & Tobago). This would prove to be a pivotal play as four minutes later, Ivanovic broke past the back line of the Lions and slotted a shot past Tappeto to give the Purple Knights a 3-1 lead. The goal came at the 55:16 mark of the second half, and exactly 66 seconds later, Ivanovic fed countryman Lazar Baresic (Belgrade, Serbia) with a cross that resulted in a sliding goal from the sophomore for a 4-1 advantage. The Serbian connection would put the finishing touches on this contest as Baresic returned the favor in the 76th minute of action, sending Ivanovic towards the box to claim his third goal of the contest and run the final score to a 5-1 edge to the disdain of the Molloy fans.
Molloy outshot their opponents by a 24-19 margin in the contest, with Poetzsch and Whyte accounting for 16 of the Lions' attempts. Eight of those 24 attempts for the maroon and white were on target, with Coviella making five saves. Junior goalkeeper Fabio Junior (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) came on as a late replacement for Coviella and made a save, and Forbes was credited with the team stop on Poetzsch to begin the second half. Tappeto collected five saves for the Lions in net.
Molloy closes its season on the road with a two-game trip away from Rockville Centre, beginning with a Wednesday (Oct. 28) afternoon contest against LIU Post. Be sure to follow www.MolloyLions.com for all the latest information on the Molloy College men's soccer team.
