Santos Da Graca's OT Strike Sends Men's Soccer Past Molloy
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY – Nelson Santos Da Graca (Gothenburg, Sweden) redirected a free kick by Victor Plaza (Jundiai, Brazil) in the 98th minute to propel the Merrimack men's soccer team to a 2-1 overtime win at Molloy Tuesday evening. The Warriors improve to 4-1-2 overall while the Lions drop to 0-6-1 on the year.
The two teams battled to a scoreless draw at the end of 45 minutes of play. The Warriors held a 10-5 advantage in shots in the first half and 2-1 edge in corner kicks.
Robbie Sabadoz (Ottawa, Ontario) tallied his first goal of the 2011 campaign in the 62nd minute. Sabadoz ran onto a through-ball from Michael Rincon (Medford, MA) and tucked the ball into the net to give Merrimack a 1-0 lead.
The Warriors' advantage only last 13 minutes as Molloy evened the match at 1-1. Tyler De La Torre latched onto a slotted pass from Daniel Patino and broke in on the Merrimack's goal alone. De La Torre slipped the ball under the sliding goalkeeper for his first of the season.
The Warriors outshot the Lions 24-11 in the match, including 4-0 in the extra session. Molloy owned a 5-4 gap in corner kicks awarded.
Mattias Drummond (Partille, Sweden) stopped a pair of shots on the night to earn his fourth win of the year between the posts. Justin Corke made six saves in goal for the hosts.
"We did a good job of possessing the ball tonight and putting pressure on their defense," said head coach Tony Martone. "This was a good non-league win and I thought we fought hard. We showed our determination in overtime."
Merrimack returns home to face American International in a Northeast-10 Conference tilt September 24 at 1 pm.
