Achondo and Corral Score as Men's Soccer Plays at St. Thomas Aquinas
Box Score SPARKILL, N.Y. (Oct. 1, 2016) – Despite goals from freshmen Manuel Achondo (Santiago, Chile/Colegio Verbo Divino) and Santiago Corral (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Instituto Francesco Faa Di Bruno), the Mercy College men's soccer team dropped a 5-2 decision to St. Thomas Aquinas College in an ECC matchup on Saturday afternoon at Spartan Field.
The Mavericks (6-3-1, 2-3 ECC) have now dropped three games in a row, while the Spartans (6-1-2, 3-0-2 ECC) remain unbeaten in ECC play.
Achondo and Corral both scored their second goals of the season, while sophomore Donovan Cesar (Jamaica, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) and junior Facundo Bouciguez (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Florida Memorial) added assists. Junior goalkeeper Kwantarian Van der Lara (Conway, Ark./Marshalltown CC) made four saves in a losing effort.
St. Thomas Aquinas received three goals from Brad Neal and two goals from Luis Morales. Jack Nicholson made three saves in net to pick up the win.
The game remained scoreless for 24 minutes before Morales broke the scoreless tie with his first goal of the contest off an assist from Chris Estevez to make it 1-0. Neal quickly came back with his first goal of the day in the 28th minute off a pass from Alejand Coyt-Orozco to increase the lead to 2-0.
The score stayed at 2-0 until the 39th minute when Neal scored again for the hosts off another assist by Coyt-Orozco to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead as the two teams went into halftime.
The second half saw the Mavericks get on the board in the 50th minute when Achondo received a ball from Cesar and found the back of the net to make it 3-1. Mercy would get even closer in the 73rd minute when Corral scored on a ball from Bouciguez to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The Mavericks looked to tie the game up, but the Spartans came back with a goal in the 75th minute to increase the lead back to two, 4-2, before adding on another goal in the 86th minute to seal the win.
St. Thomas Aquinas held an 18-10 edge in shots and a 4-3 advantage in corner kicks.
Head Coach Pedro Velazquez and the Mavericks look to bounce back when they host Philadelphia University on Wednesday, October 5th at 3 p.m.
