Men's Soccer Suffers Non-League Loss to Bloomfield, 2-1
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack men's soccer team was unable to overcome a two-goal deficit at halftime, falling 2-1 to Bloomfield Wednesday afternoon at Martone-Mejail Field. The Warriors sink to 6-3-2 overall while the Deacons improve to 3-5-1 on the year.
Bloomfield netted the match's first score in the 11th minute. Terry Gibbs served a cross from the right wing that bounced inside the penalty box. Claude Allen caught up to the service and headed the ball inside the left post to give the Deacons a 1-0 lead.
Gibbs increased the visitors' advantage to two goals as he converted a penalty kick in the 30th minute.
Merrimack owned a slight 6-4 edge in shots through 45 minutes of play. The Warriors also earned two of the three corner kicks awarded in the first half.
In the second frame, Nicholas Lo Coco (Gloucester, MA) buried a penalty kick in the 55th minute to cut the Deacons' lead to one, 2-1.
Merrimack earned a second penalty kick in the second half in the 76th minute. Robbie Sabadoz's (Ottawa, ON) attempt sailed just over the crossbar with less than 15 minutes remaining in the contest.
The Warriors were unable to tally an equalizer late in the game despite a barrage of shots in the waning moments.
Merrimack finished the match with an 18-10 margin in shots and an 8-2 gap in corner kicks earned.
Mattias Drummond (Partille, Sweden) started the match in goal for the Warriors and was pinned with his third loss of the season. Evan Berube (Uxbridge, MA) came on in the second half and stopped all three shots he faced.
"We started out a little slow today and we weren't able to comeback from it," said head coach Tony Martone. "We had our chances in the second half and we were unlucky not to put one away. We'll pick up our heads and get to work on preparing for the rest of the Northeast-10 games."
Merrimack resumes conference action as it travels to Stonehill October 8.
