Box Score
BOSTON, Mass.—UMass Boston men's soccer ran through and past Keene State' College's 10-man defense, en-route to a dominating 5-1 Little East Conference win, in a rematch of the 2014 Little East Conference Championship Game.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 5, Keene State College 1
(UMass Boston 13-3, Little East 5-1)
(Keene State College 4-10, Little East 1-5)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Senior Pedro Dasilva (Fogo, Cape Verde) scored his team-leading second hat trick of the season and junior Ricky Bonilla (Framingham, Mass.) and freshman Guilherme Barbosa (Saugus, Mass.) each scored a goal apiece, as UMass Boston bounced back from a 3-0 loss on Wednesday.
DaSilva scored three times in a nine-minute and twenty-second span, bridging the two halves, to help the Beacons earn back-to-back wins over the Owls for the first time in program history.
UMass Boston opened the game red-hot, but couldn't find a way past Keene State senior goalie Mark Keller in the early going. Keller made two tremendous saves in the opening 10 minutes, but then was let down by one of his top scorers.
Reigning Little East Conference Rookie of the Year Promise Kpee picked up his second yellow card of the game at 18:18, to help the Beacons open the flood gates.
Barbosa was the first to solve Keller, after some tremendous tic-toe passing opened up the Keene back four. Mohamed Kenawy (Revere, Mass.) recorded his first of two assists as he sent a cross to Elton Teixeira (Fogo, Cape Verde) at the edge of the box. From there, Teixeira whipped a curling pass just outside the six-yard box, and Barbosa raced past his defender and tipped the shot past Keller for a 1-0 lead at 24:01.
The Beacons added a second tally from DaSilva off of some more pinpoint passing. Center back Marcelo Cunha's (Goiania, Brazil) through-ball found Kenawy in behind the defense and Kenawy unselfishly found Dasilva, who's first touch found the back of the net at 37:16.
The senior would add a second goal at 39:57, thanks to a great individual effort. Right back Edmilson Barros (Praia, Cape Verde) sent a long clearance towards the top of the Keene State box and Dasilva took over from there. His first touch took him between a pair of Keene State defenders and he somehow split the pair, before sending a left-footed half-volley past Keller.
DaSilva's third goal came just after halftime and it was nearly as impressive as his second. Cunha bombed another long throughball for Dasilva and he simply outraced two defenders, before easily chipping it in for his 25th goal as a Beacon.
Keene State cut the deficit to 4-1 at 64:44, when Brett Sullivan took a pass from Joseph Delaney and sent a shot from 20-yards out that bounced just in front of a diving UMass Boston goalie Alfonso Rosales (Revere, Mass.) and in.
The Beacons would answer back though, as the put the icing on top in the 77th minute. Barbosa and Dasilva opened up the defense on a 3-on-2 for the Beacons and Dasilva left it for the trailer Bonilla, who's one-timer went in for his first collegiate goal.
BY THE NUMBERS
- UMass Boston outshot the Owls 27-6 and earned a 13-4 advantage on shots on goal. The Beacons also picked up an impressive 11-1 edge on corners.
- Rosales made two saves on three shots for the Beacons, while Barros came up with a key team save.
- Keller made eight saves on 13 shots for the Owls, including a penalty-kick save in the second half.
- With the victory, UMass Boston improved to 4-16-1 against the Owls. The Beacons are 2-0-1 against Keene State over the past two years.
- Bonilla's goal marked his first collegiate goal and collegiate points in his 30-game career.
- UMass Boston will enter the final weekend of play in second place in the LEC, as they host third-place Plymouth State University 4-1-1.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will look to tie the 2014-15 team for most wins in a single season (14), when they travel to Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
