Nichols Tops Men's Soccer, 3-0

DUDLEY, MA - The Anna Maria men's soccer team (3-5-0) were bested by the Nichols College Bison (4-2-1) in non-conference action Thursday afternoon at Vendetti Field.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Bison struck first in the contest at 25:39 when Nikolas Padilla (Worcester, MA) sent over a cross pass to Nicholas Gonyea (Oxford, MA) where he collected the pass and put it past AMCATS keeper Kyle Sherman (Mount Laurel, NJ) for the 1-0 lead. Shortly after, Nichols struck again when Ryan Mangan (Braintree, MA) passed the ball up to Ali Ali (West Springfield, MA) who shot the ball past a diving Sherman's right side to make it 2-0. Anna Maria almost found the equalizer at the 43:40 mark when Ryan Todesco (Southwick, MA) blasted a shot that was saved by Nichols goalie, Juan Carlos De La Cruz (Stamford, CT). 
• Both sides continued to play hard into the second and the AMCATS generated seven shots throughout the half including one from Hezekiah Adeyeye (Woonsocket, RI) at 53:25 when he got himself open for the shot but was turned away from De La Cruz. 
• Nichols added one more insurance goal toward the end of the half at 86:56 when the Bison generated a corner kick from James Chasco-Dimauro (Rocky Hill, CT) that found Gonyea for the header for the 3-0 advantage.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Sherman made 11 saves on the day, and De La Cruz totaled four saves for the hosts.
• Anna Maria held the advantage in corners during the second half, 5-4.
• Adeyeye and Nick Lawrence (Attleboro, MA) were tied for the team lead in shots (2). Simon Berry (Londonderry, NH), Christopher Dunn (Burlington, ON), Steven Makynen (Uxbridge, MA), and Todesco each had one shot to round out the top three.

WHAT'S NEXT

Anna Maria opens up Great Northeast Athletics Conference on September, 21 at 12:00 PM when the squad travels to Rivier University. Nichols starts Commonwealth Coast Conference play going to Curry College on Saturday, September 21 at 6:00 PM.

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