EAST BOSTON – The Suffolk men's soccer team was stopped by Norwich, 5-0, Saturday afternoon at James A. Sartori Stadium at East Boston Memorial Park.
It took both teams the first ten minutes of action to catch their barring and really turn on the engines. Suffolk (0-7-1, 0-2-1 GNAC) saw two opportunities that were matched by a Norwich (5-3-1, 2-1-0 GNAC) chance and back-to-back corners for the Cadets with neither team capitalizing on its openings.
Following their own foul, the Cadets contingent charged the length of the field. Christian Albrecht sent a go ahead pass from the 50-yard line to Alec Brigante. Ahead of the pack, the only thing standing in the way of a score and himself was Nicholas Chamma. Using the one-on-one to his advantage, Brigante drew Suffolk's senior netminder out to the 5-yard line to easily send the rock on the right to the back of the netting. Brigante tallied his second goal of the season with just under 30 minutes remaining as Norwich went up, 1-0.
Less than two minutes passed before Brigante had another one-on-one. With Chamma away from the pipes again, the Cadets' junior forward fired the ball to the left, but Chamma made a diving catch to keep it a one-goal match.
Determined to put Norwich ahead by two, Brigante saw Chase Hainey ahead of the pack and dished the rock ahead to the sophomore forward. Taking a play out of Brigante's book, Hainey pulled Chamma out of position and nearly had an open net, but could not connect as the rock went far right and the score remained 1-0.
Jordan Casey had the best look for the Rams in the first frame. With a flurry of defenders the freshman midfielder shook a flurry of defenders, saw an opening and shot from the corner of the left box. Casey's attempt flew far right and Suffolk would head into the intermission down.
Right out of the break Brigante was still in the hunt for this second goal of the afternoon and he did not have to wait long to tally it. This time he used a pass from Jacob Zimmerman, who pulled Suffolk's defense and goal to the right side, while Brigante stood dead center. Brigante's third goal of the year was an easy one-timer at the 48th minute mark.
The Cadets commanded the pace for the remainder of the contest with Hainey, Jeff Purdy and Eric Beecey tacking on scores for the final 5-0 margin.
Suffolk returns to action Wednesday, Sept. 30 at local rival MIT.