Burokas Tallies Two as Men's Soccer Tops Assumption, 4-1
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.- The Merrimack men's
soccer team earned a 4-1 win over Assumption Tuesday night. The
Warriors run their record up to 9-3-0 on the year and 5-3 in the
Northeast-10 Conference. The Greyhounds sink to 5-5-2 overall and
4-5-1 in the conference with the loss.
On a cold night at Warrior Field, Evan Burokas
(Auburn, Mass.) caught fire with a two-goal performance
for Merrimack. After some miscommunication amongst the Warrior
defense led to an own goal, Burokas tallied the equalizer 12
minutes into the contest. Robbie Sabadoz
(Ottawa, Ontario) dribbled past a defender on the endline
and played the ball back to Burokas in the middle of the box. The
junior midfielder one-timed the ball into the back of the net to
make the score even at 1-1.
In the waning minutes of the first half, Nicholas LoCoco
(Gloucester, Mass.) buried his first goal of the season.
Adam
Leone (East Northport, N.Y) heaved a throw-in into the
penalty area to Lo Coco. The junior defender headed the ball
towards the cage. Lo Coco's shot took a deflection and snuck inside
the near post to give the home side a 2-1 advantage heading into
halftime.
In the final 10 minutes of the match, the Warriors scored two
insurance goals to propel them to the 4-1 victory.
The Assumption goalkeeper came out of his box to clear a ball
played down the left flank. The goalkeeper cleared the ball to
Burokas in the middle of the park with no one around him. Burokas
settled the ball and rifled a shot from 35 yards out into the open
net.
Five minutes later at the 85th minute mark, Elvert Bodden
(La Ceiba, Honduras) got his head onto a corner kick from
Rafael
Cabral (Woburn, Mass.). Bodden sent the ball into the
far post with a glancing header to cap off the scoring.
In the final seconds of play, two freshmen nearly combined for
the fifth Merrimack goal of the night. Francis Mulkern
(Scituate, Mass.) tracked down a ball on the left sideline
and crossed the ball to Daniel Holland
(Dryden, N.Y.) making a run to the back post. Holland's
sliding volley soared just wide of the frame.
Kevin
Joyce (Mansfield, Mass.) made two saves between the
sticks for the Warriors en route to his ninth win of the year.
Brandan Sullivan turned aside seven shots for Assumption in the
contest.
Merrimack held a commanding 20-8 edge in shots on the night
while the two teams split the 10 corner kicks awarded.
