Mulkern's Hat Trick Lifts Men's Soccer to Road Win at New Haven
NEW HAVEN, CT- Sophomore Francis Mulkern (Scituate, MA) tallied a trio of goals to propel the Merrimack men's soccer team past New Haven 3-2 Saturday afternoon. The Warriors improve to 3-1-2 overall and 2-1 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Chargers sink to 0-3-2 on the season and 0-2 in league action.
Mulkern netted his first goal of the match in the 17th minute. The sophomore picked up his team-leading fourth score of the season with the unassisted tally.
New Haven knotted the game at a goal each as Dave Ljundquist found the back of the net in the 36th minute. Jacob Applebaum earned an assist on the Chargers' first goal of the match.
The hosts claimed the lead just before the halftime intermission. Ljundquist knocked in the ball off of a corner kick by Clancy Purcell with three seconds on the clock, giving New Haven a 2-1 edge at the break.
Less than 10 minutes into the second half, Mulkern tied the contest at 2-2 with this second on the day. Nelson Santos Da Graca (Gothenburg, Sweden) set up Mulkern for the goal to pick up an assist.
After a Charger was issued a red card in the 67th minute, Merrimack held a man-advantage for the remaining 23 minutes of play.
Mulkern capped off the hat trick late in the match for his sixth marker of the year. The striker finished a feed from Olof Lindhe (Stockholm, Sweden) to award the Warriors the one-goal advantage.
Mattias Drummond (Partille, Sweden) registered nine saves in the match to earn his third win of the year in goal. J.J. Comeau stopped four shots between the posts for New Haven.
The Chargers owned a 17-13 edge in shots and 5-3 margin in corner kicks earned.
"This was a good result for us today, we really needed a win. I was proud with the way that we kept battling back and not allowing them to gain any momentum," said head coach Tony Martone.
Merrimack stays on the road as it travels to Molloy for a non-conference match September 20.
