SPARKILL, N.Y. (Oct. 3, 2021) – Despite goals from senior Archie Jones (London, England/Northbridge) and graduate student Pau Echarri (Madrid, Spain/Universidad Ceu San Pablo), the Mercy College men's soccer team dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to ECC foe St. Thomas Aquinas College on Sunday afternoon at Spartan Field.
The Mavericks (4-4-1, 1-2-1 ECC) have dropped two games in a row and fall to the Spartans (6-2-1, 3-1 ECC) for the first time since 2016. Mercy has now lost two games in a row for the first time since 2016.
Jones and Echarri both recorded their third goals of the year. Junior David Breitenbach (Mannheim, Germany/Barton College) and senior Abraham Lopez (Houston, Texas/Harding University) added assists and graduate student Felipe Baeza (Santiago, Chile/USC Upstate) made a season-high six saves to take the loss.
The Spartans were led by Anthony Sanchez who had two goals and an assist. Asier Vegas made eight saves to earn the win.
Mercy scored in just the 8th minute of action as Breitenbach fed Jones after a Spartan defensive misplay to make it 1-0.
It remained 1-0 until the 24th minute when Echarri scored to make it 2-0. Lopez sent a pass to Echarri and the graduate student turned and shot the ball into the corner to give Mercy a two-goal lead.
Baeza made three saves in the first half to keep the Mavericks ahead 2-0 at halftime.
The score was 2-0 until the 55th minute when Sanchez scored a penalty kick goal after a Mercy foul in the box to make it 2-1.
It stayed 2-1 until the final seconds when the Mavericks committed a handball in the box with 3.4 seconds left. Sanchez connected on the ensuing penalty kick to make it 2-2, sending the game into overtime.
Sanchez hit the crossbar on a shot in the 98th minute and Seif Samy put the rebound in the back of the net to give the Spartans a 3-2 overtime win.
St. Thomas Aquinas held a 21-17 edge in shots and a 7-5 edge in corner kicks.
Head Coach Pedro Velazquez and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, October 9th when they host UDC at 12 p.m.
