(09-09-06)
Box Score
Bronxville, N.Y. -- Senior Tyler Smith, last week's ECC Baden Co-Offensive Player of the Week, scored a goal and added two assists to key UNH's 3-1 men's soccer victory over league foe Concordia on Saturday afternoon.
Smith, who scored just once in his debut season at UNH last year, scored his third goal of the season and added assists number two and three to help lift UNH to 2-3-0 overall. Most importantly, the win puts UNH at 1-0 in the East Coast Conference.
Junior Ajani Maillard opened the scoring 9:08 into the contest. Paul Bocchino had a free kick, and it was flipped on by Smith onto the foot of Maillard, who deftly converted from about six yards out.
Concordia (0-2, 0-1) would tie the game almost exactly four minutes later on an unassisted free kick goal by Stefan Dimitrov, and the scored would remain knotted as the teams went to the half.
It took nearly 17 minutes into that second half before UNH would break the game open. At 62:59, Smith corralled a loose ball in the box and fired his third goal of the season into the lower left corner of the goal for a 2-1 UNH lead. Nearly three minutes later, at 65:54, Smith fed the ball to Jessey Fernandez, who spun and fired a similar goal into the lower left corner to ice the game for the Chargers.
"This was a good, gutty second half performance by our team," said head coach Matt Verni. "And more importantly, we picked up three points in the conference standings. Starting 1-0 there gives us a good feeling to help prepare us for Dowling at home on Wednesday. I thought goalkeeper James Hilaire played well today, and Damien Slubowski and Bocchino also played very well in the back."
This was the last leg of a three-match road string for the men's team. They return to Dodds Stadium on Wednesday, September 13 for a ECC match against Dowling College.
