NEW LONDON, Conn – Lesley Men's Soccer displayed tremendous fight in a 3-2 setback at Mitchell College on Wednesday afternoon. With the loss the Lynx drop to 4-2 in the NECC and 8-8-1 overall. Mitchell improves to 5-1 in NECC play and 6-8-1 on the season.
"It was a another tough conferene match against a good team on their home field," said head coach James Costa. "The boys showed a lot of grit and made things interesting after getting down 2-0. We fought back and had chances to make it even but couldn't capitalize on those opportunities. We are looking forward to our next match on Saturday."
The "grit" Costa is referring to was Lesley's ability to score twice in the second half cutting into the deficit each time.
Trailing 2-0 at the end of the first half, Senior Wilton Zuo (Dorchester, Mass) answered for the Lynx with a goal at 73rd minute of play making the score 2-1. Five minutes later, at the 78th minute mark, Mitchell was able to extend their lead to 3-1 with a goal from David Hernandez (Norwich, Conn). The Lynx once again sliced into Mitchell's lead with a goal from Senior Nuno Pereira (Sao Filipe, Fogo, Cape Verde) with just three minutes remaining in the match. In the final minutes of the match, trailing by one, Lesley created several opportunities to even the score but failed to produce a shot on goal as time expired.
Yianni Longinidis (Waterford, Conn) and Wadlet Jean Baptiste (New London, Conn) each added a goal of their own for Mitchell contributing to their victory. Goalkeeper, Seth Strader (Preston, Conn) recorded three saves for Mitchell and Lesley keeper James Webb (San Francisco, Calif) finished with three saves in the match.
Lesley returns to action at home vs. Southern Vermont College on Saturday, October 28th, at 5:30 pm. Mitchell will host Newbury College on Saturday, October 28th, at 1:00 pm.