After a hard fought game, the Beacons hung on for a 2-1 victory against Mass Maritime in soccer action at the Clark Athletic Center field on Tuesday. With the win, the Beacons boost their record to 4-2 (0-1 in conference) and lead the conference in scoring with 17 goals, while the Buccaneers drop to 1-3.
Guilherme “Gui” Gonclaves began the scoring for the Beacons at the 13:58 mark of the first half, receiving a cross from Teammate Romeo Zeqo and planting the ball in the top left corner of the net to give the Beacons a one-nil lead. Gui then returned the favor just 2:29 into the second half, arcing in a ball from the left side which Zeqo took down, made a quick move, and sent a stinging ground shot into the right side of the net putting the Beacons up two.
A header by Mass Maritime freshman Matthew Patten off a cross from Christopher Corr brought the Buccaneers within one, but that’s as close as they would get. Unfortunately, it was not a stingy Beacons defense that kept Mass Maritime out of the net, as they had plenty of chances and the game ended in a flurry of free kicks and corners while the Beacons struggled mightily to get the ball out of their half. While in the end the Beacons squeaked out the win, Coach Myles Berry was not happy with what he saw on the field.
“They’re always tough and they played real hard but we should have put the game away. They put us under a ton of pressure and it worried me a little bit the way we were back [in our own half] all game”, the coach commented, “We lost our composure getting it out in the end there and good teams don’t make mistakes in their own half”.
On a positive note, the coach thought that the team attacked well on offense, which has not been a problem for the Beacons this year. Also, with his goal and assist, Romeo Zeqo ties Sinisa Bajic, the “Serbian Sniper” from Southern Maine, for the conference lead in points and hopefully Gonclaves’ three point performance will help get him back on track, as this is the first game in which he has made it into the books.
The Beacons will next be in action September 25th against Salem State in Salem with the kickoff scheduled for 6PM.
