UB Men's Soccer Stays In ECC Championship Tournament Hunt With 6-2 Senior Day Win Over Queens (N.Y.) College
If UB Wins At Mercy On Saturday, The Purple Knights Will Claim The Fourth And Final ECC Championship Tournament Spot
Bridgeport, Conn.- The University of Bridgeport men's soccer team reigned supreme on Senior Day in the battle of the host UB Purple Knights versus the visiting Queens (N.Y.) College Knights and stay in the hunt for the final East Coast Conference Championship Tournament playoff berth with a 6-2 victory on a chilly Wednesday afternoon at Knights Field. UB is now 3-10-2 overall and moves to 3-3-2 in the ECC, Queens (N.Y.) is 5-7-4 on the season and 2-4-2 in conference play.
After Queens opened the contest with a goal at just 5:50 in to play, UB senior Luka Ivanovic (Belgrade, Serbia) evened the score at 1-1 off a penalty kick at the 11:28 mark following a QC hand ball in the box.
Ivanovic scored his second goal of the match and the season just over 10 minutes later off a pass from junior Femi Coker (Johannesburg, South Africa), giving Bridgeport a 2-1 lead which they never relinquished.
Just six minutes later, senior Luis Fajardo (Danbury, Conn.) put one in the net to give UB a 3-1 after receiving a cross at the far post from junior Jaylan White (Dix Hills, N.Y.). Wednesday's goal is Fajardo's first of 2016.
With the scored standing at 3-1 entering the halftime break, Queens earned a penalty kick at the 63:12 mark following a UB hand ball in in the box that was converted by Andras Breuer to cut the Purple Knights lead to 3-2.
That one goal deficit was as close as the visitors would come, as Femi Coker would back of the net at 65:46 when freshman Nikolai Vadseth (Langevaag, Norway) sent the ball down the middle of the pitch in transition. Thirty second later, Coker would score again giving him a team-high six goals so far this year, this time off a feed from freshman Erlend Skagestad (Mjoendalen, Norway).
The final goal of the night would come with just under 12 minutes to play from Vadseth, his fourth goal of the year, who blasted a shot past the QC keeper off a flick from classmate Jake Atkinson (Stamford, Conn.).
The six goals are a 2016 single-match high for Bridgeport.
UB senior goalkeeper Fabio Junior (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) picked up his third win of the year making three saves, and sophomore Juan Munoz (Bogota, Columbia) finished up the victory for his team playing the final 5:28 of action.
Up next, Bridgeport men's soccer team travels to Mercy College to end their regular season on Saturday, October 29. Game time is set for 11:00 a.m. If the Purple Knights win that match, they claim the fourth and final spot in the 2016 ECC Championship Tournament.