MILTON, Mass. – The UMass Dartmouth men's soccer team came up short during non-conference action against Curry College on Sunday afternoon falling 1-0 on the road. The Corsairs drop to 0-1-1 with the loss while the Colonels earn their first win of the season to improve to a 1-0-1 overall record.
First year
Mario Rodriguez fired the first shot on target for the Corsairs testing Curry goalkeeper Brendan Cunningham early in the game who came up with the stop. The Colonels started to gain traction in the UMass Dartmouth's defensive third resulting in the first shot on frame for Curry by Kaden Puglia. Junior goalkeeper
Ethan Donahue made a diving save to deny Puglia and keep the home team off the scoreboard.
Midway through the first half, the Corsairs attack began to click recording five shot attempts featuring shots on goal by sophomores
Nate Cordeiro and
Thomas Meader. Noah Doyens ripped a late shot for the Colonels, but Donahue easily collected the ball for his second save of the afternoon.
UMass Dartmouth came out strong in the second half outshooting Curry 7-0 in the opening minutes of play. Senior
Justin Petrillo almost found the back of the net with his header attempt from a corner kick delivered by sophomore
Matt Kobrenski that bounced off the woodwork.
Shortly after, Curry broke through the scoreless deadlock on a fortunate deflection that looped over Donahue to give the home team the 1-0 edge. At the 64
th minute, UMass Dartmouth earned a chance to tie the game after Curry committed a foul inside the penalty box. Petrillo stepped up to take the penalty kick, but Cunningham came up big for the Colonels with a diving save.
The Corsairs continued to battle, putting five of their last six shots of the match on target. Cunningham made all five stops while fifth year Joey Pavia's shot attempt in the 81
st minute struck the post, sealing the Colonels narrow win by a final score of 1-0.
Despite the score, UMass Dartmouth outshot Curry 28-11 and held a 17-4 advantage in shots on goal. The Corsairs also won the corner kick battle with 13 while the Colonels took four corner kicks in the contest.
Rodriguez and Petrillo each ended the game with a team-high seven shots combining for nine strikes on target. Pavia recorded six shot attempts with four on frame for the Corsairs in the loss. Donahue produced four total saves for UMass Dartmouth allowing just one goal after playing the entire match. Cunningham had a career game for Curry in their season home opener with a career-high 17 saves.
The Corsairs travel to Salve Regina University for their next non-conference tilt on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm from Toppa Field in Newport, R.I.
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