O'Brien scores two goals for the Skyhawks

EASTON, Mass. (September 12, 2017) – The Stonehill men's soccer team jumped ahead early with a 2-0 advantage, but No. 3 Adelphi University scored a late goal to secure a Northeast-10 Conference win, 3-2, Tuesday afternoon on Skyhawk Field.

Stonehill's (3-2-1, 0-1-0 NE10) senior Connor O'Brien (Schenectady, New York/Guilderland Central) scored both goals for the Skyhawks for his eighth and ninth tallies of his career. Both were unassisted in the first half. Senior goalkeeper Conor McDonough (Bridgewater, Massachusetts/Coyle and Cassidy) notched six saves in the loss.

No. 3 Adelphi saw Toni Soler, John Stojcevski, and Andre De Giorgi record the goals for the Panthers, as Stephen Megaloudis registered the helper for De Giorgi's goal.

The Panthers had a quick start to the game with an early shot on goal and a corner kick, but the Skyhawks were able to stop Adelphi from scoring and draw a free kick in the seventh minute of the game. Stonehill set up the free kick from about 40 yards away and O'Brien launched the ball over the defense clipping the crossbar and bouncing into the box for a 1-0 advantage at 6:28 in the first half.

Adelphi added two more corner kicks to their total, but Stonehill's defense knocked the ball out of their defensive third for another opportunity in the Skyhawks' offensive third. The Panthers tried to keep the ball after Soler took a shot at the net, but the Skyhawks' O'Brien took an opportunity to outsmart the defense and take the ball away. He dribbled past two defenders at midfield and launched an arch from about 50 yards out over the keeper's head, who was playing at the top of the six-yard box for a 2-0 lead in the 13^th minute of the game.

Four minutes later, a foul was called on Stonehill at around 35 yards out and Adelphi's Soler connected on the free kick, which found the back left post cutting the deficit to one, 2-1, in the 17^th minute.

Sixteen minutes into the second half, Stonehill was called for another foul inside the 18-yard box, which set up Adelphi for a penalty kick by Guillermo Lazcano. Lazcano chipped the ball to the left and McDonough dove for the ball and punched it out to his defense to clear the ball in the 62^nd minute.

With just a little more than 10 minutes left in the game, the Panthers drew another foul, but this time just outside the 18-yard box for Stojcevski to send the ball to the back of the net in the left corner for the equalizer, 2-2.

Play toggled between the two teams in the remaining minutes, until De Giorgi scored the game-winning goal in the 88^th minute. Megaloudis took the ball up the right side of the field, finding De Giorgi inside the 18-yard box for a one touch to the back left corner of the net for Adelphi's first lead of the game, 3-2.

The Skyhawks travel to Springfield, Massachusetts for a NE10 Conference matchup against American International College on Saturday, September 16 with a 1:00 p.m. start time.   

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