After picking up first victory of the season in their last match versus Anna Maria, the Suffolk Men’s soccer team looked to continue their momentum into their two games this past week. Suffolk scored its first four goals of the season against Anna Maria after being shut-out in their first five contests of the year.
On Sept. 25th, Suffolk hosted Eastern Nazarene College for a non-conference match in Somerville. The offensive once again was the shining point for the men’s team as it tallied another three goals in the match giving them a 3-0 victory over the Lions.
Andres Cohen continued to stay hot after having a hat-trick in his previous game. Cohen opened up the scoring just about 12 minutes into the match when Suffolk had a corner kick. Tyler Parmelee took the corner and Cohen was Johnny-on-the-spot, netting his fourth goal of the season, also being his fourth in just two games.
After a quick goal, the offensive settled down on both sides until after the half. Once again Suffolk scored quickly, only 10 minutes into the half, in the 56th minute, Captain Djibril Niang headed in his first goal of the season with a beautiful cross pass by senior Jeff Williams. Niang was poised to score at some point this year being one of Suffolk’s best offensive weapons, and Williams continued his ability to set up his peers as his assist was his second in two games.
Nicholas Chamma had a great performance in net, stopping all 10 of the shots that Eastern Nazarene put on him. Chamma has posted back to back shutouts and earned his second victory of the year, improving his record to 2-5.
Just for good measure in the 87th minute, Tyler Parmelee was rewarded for his assist earlier in the game by putting the nail in the coffin and sealing the victory for Suffolk. It was the first goal of the year for Parmelee who was assisted by Aaron Haggas.
Next on the schedule for Suffolk was conference foe Lasell. This would prove to be a tough match for Suffolk as Lasell has a record of 7-1, and 3-0 in the GNAC. Suffolk found itself down two goals after holding the Lasers scoreless for the first 24 minutes. In the 24th and 28th minute, the Lasers potted goals from Mike Skelton and Jose Cabrera. These were the first two goals Chamma had given up in over 200 minutes of play. Suffolk took the 2-0 deficit into halftime, but came out strong in the second. Who else but Andres Cohen gave Suffolk the spark it needed. In just about the 60th minute. Cohen scored in what is now his third consecutive match, having scored five goals in those three matches. This cut Lasell’s lead to only 2-1.
Suffolk continued to battle through the rest of the match time, but could not hold on as Lasell added another goal late to take the match 3-1, improving to 8-1, and 4-0 in the division.
Although this was a tough loss for the men, it showed them that they can hang with the best and made them a hungrier team than they already were.
This week Suffolk will be on the road for both matches as they take on non-conference Regis College today and then Johnson & Whales (in conference) on Saturday.
