Box Score
Garden City, N.Y. – The men's soccer team closed out their final home stand of the regular season earlier this afternoon against the Falcons of Bentley University in a Northeast-10 Conference contest. It took nearly 88 minutes, but the Panthers got the job done thanks to
Diego Zuniga's late game winner. The 1-0 victory marks the 500
th win in the men's soccer program history and bumps Adelphi's record up to 10-5, 9-3 NE-10 while the Falcons move to 7-6-1, 6-5 NE-10.
The Brown and Gold dominated the first half, controlling the ball for the majority of the initial 45 minutes and playing much of their possessions in Bentley territory.
Nicholas Costa's attempt in the 39
th minute came extremely close to finding the back of the net, but Bentley keeper Jack Blatchford just got his fingertips on it and redirected the ball over the crossbar.
Caelan Hueber,
Alejandro Penzini,
Diego Zuniga and
Juan Aguiar all contributed to Adelphi's 10 first half shots and came dangerously close to scoring but were unable to break the 0-0 deadlock. Defensively, Adelphi's back line comprised of
TJ Butler,
Momodou Sawaneh,
Jordan Hibbert and
John Sabal allowed just one shot. However, Scott Levy's attempt was stopped by keeper
Ahmad Salamah.
Justin Cirasola nearly broke the silence in the 63
rd minute when he fired a shot from the attacking left from 20 yards out. It sailed just high of Salamah, hitting the crossbar and bouncing straight down, but never broke the plain.
At the 87:58 mark, Costa sent a cross-field pass where he found Zuniga. The junior transfer made a move, created room and put a shot past a diving Blatchford for the 1-0 game winner.
The Panthers outshot the visitors 22-6 and held a 5-1 corner advantage. Salamah made four saves in the win and moves his record up to 6-2. The clean sheet is the junior's six straight shutout.
Coach's Thoughts on the Game
"Tonight was special for the Adelphi family; past and present," exclaimed Head Coach
Carlo Acquista. "It was the program's 500th career win! Bentley did not make it easy but I was proud of my guys to play to the last second to preserve a very tough fought win. We will enjoy it for the night and quickly turn around to prepare for a very good Southern Connecticut team."
Up Next
The Panthers return to action on Tuesday, October 29 when they take on the Owls of Southern Connecticut State University in a 7 pm Northeast-10 Conference contest in New Haven, CT in their final game of the regular season.
Road to 500 wins
|
Coach |
Year |
W-L-T |
|
Lisandro Diaz |
1954-60 |
4-12-1 |
|
Anthony Nonanno |
1956-60 |
25-34-5 |
|
Harold Schaffer |
1961-62 |
10-18-4 |
|
Laurence Holt |
1963-64 |
18-9-2 |
|
Bob Ritcey |
1965-66 |
7-19-2 |
|
Mel Less |
1967-77 |
117-41-20 |
|
Bob Montgomery |
1978-03 |
258-223-39 |
|
Carlo Acquista |
2004-present |
61-55-11 |
|
Totals |
58 years |
500-408-84 |
