HENNIKER, N.H.-The New England College men's soccer team picked up a 3-2 non-conference win over the Raiders of Rivier University on Tuesday evening in the final regular-season game of the season.
The win boosts NEC to 10-6-2, while Rivier concludes their season at 2-14-1.
SCORING
32:30 | NEC Hans Fanfan (Anthony Nardi)
34:41 | NEC Raymond Scalfani (Cooper Valinski, Owen Lloyd)
35:24 | RIV Harley Kearney (Prince Moye)
83:27 | NEC Kyle Clements (
Panagiotis Galatas)
83:58 | RIV Pedro Lopez
HOW IT HAPPENED
All three first-half goals were scored within a stretch of two minutes and 54 seconds, beginning with Hans Fanfan's (Yarmouth, Mass.) first collegiate goal at the 33:30 mark. 2:11 later, the Pilgrims took a 2-0 lead after Cooper Valinski (Portsmouth, N.H.) ricocheted a corner kick off of the Rivier keeper to the feet of Owen Lloyd (Somers, N.Y.), who fed it to
Raymond Sclafani (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) for the score.
In the 36
th minute, Rivier's Harley Kearney (Pelham, N.H.) headed the ball past the NEC goalkeeper for their first score. NEC led 2-1 at halftime.
Both goals in the second half were scored within 31 seconds of each other. NEC broke open a nearly 50-minute scoreless draught with their third goal of the game, scored by Kyle Clements (Weare, N.H.) at the 83:27 mark.
Thirty-one seconds later, Pedro Lopez (Methuen, Mass.) scored for Rivier to keep the Raiders within one goal.
GOALKEEPERS
NEC goalkeeper Dylan Mix (Charlestown, N.H.) tallied four saves in the net in the win, while Rivier's Collin Deyarmin (Raymond, N.H.) finished with six saves.
QUOTE FROM THE COACH
"Not our cleanest performance, but we will take the result and focus all our efforts on Sunday's playoff game." Head Coach
Dave DeCew
WHAT'S NEXT
The fourth-seed Pilgrims will host No. 5 Husson on Sunday at noon in the North Atlantic Conference quarterfinals. NEC picked up a 1-0 win over the Eagles two weeks ago in Bangor, Maine.
