AMHERST, N.Y. (Oct. 7, 2017) – Junior Lucca Lacerda (Passos, Brazil/Monroe College) scored the game-winning goal in the 64th minute of action, off an assist from sophomore Santiago Corral (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Instituto Francesco Faa Di Bruno), to give the Mercy College men's soccer team a 1-0 victory over Daemen College on Saturday afternoon at Karrer Field.
The Mavericks (8-3, 4-1 ECC) have won five games in a row, while the Wildcats (4-8, 1-4 ECC) have dropped two of their last three games.
Lacerda scored his second goal of the season and had two shots on goal, while Corral contributed his first assist of the season. Senior Kwantarian Van der Lara (Stockholm, Sweden/Marshalltown CC) made one save to pick up his sixth shutout win of the season.
Daemen was led by Finn Krueger who had a shot on goal, while Mike D'Amato made five saves to take the loss in goal.
Mercy came in looking for their fifth straight win and would have to rely on late game heroics to pull out the fifth consecutive win. Lacerda recorded the first shot on goal of the contest for either team in the 15th minute when his shot was stopped by a Daemen defender. Redshirt freshman Gaston Rozenblum (Buenos Aires, Argentina/ORT Argentina) followed with another shot but D'Amato was up to the challenge and the score remained 0-0.
The Mavericks forced D'Amato to make three saves in the half, but were unable to score despite holding a 7-2 advantage in shots.
The second half saw Mercy have to play down a man after a red card, but the Mavericks continued to fire away against the Wildcats defense. Mercy's persistence finally paid off in the 64th minute when Corral fed Lacerda for the first goal of the game, giving the Mavericks a 1-0 lead. Lacerda fired a low shot just inside the box that found its way inside the near left post to put Mercy out in front.
The Mavericks backline would hold its own the rest of the way and Van der Lara stopped the lone Daemen shot on goal in the 82nd minute to preserve the win for Mercy.
Mercy held a 15-7 edge in shots, while Daemen held a 5-4 advantage in corner kicks.
Head Coach Pedro Velazquez and the Mavericks look to make it six wins in a row when they host Holy Family on Thursday, October 12th at 3 p.m.
