BOYDS, Md. (Oct. 1, 2022) – Powered by four different Mavericks scoring, the No. 22 Mercy College men's soccer team earned a 4-2 win over ECC foe University of the District of Columbia on Saturday afternoon at the Maryland SoccerPlex.
The Mavericks (8-2-1, 4-1 ECC) get back in the win column after last week's loss and are now 3-0-1 in their last four meetings against the Firebirds (5-5-1, 1-3 ECC). The four goals scored by the Mavericks are a season high. The game was also Head Coach Pedro Velazquez's 100th career game as head coach. He holds a 66-24-10 career record at Mercy.
Senior Marco Passera (Haugesund, Norway/Spring Hill College) scored his first goal of the season and senior David Breitenbach (Mannheim, Germany/Barton College) added his team-high-tying fourth goal of the season. Sophomore Luís Silva (Esposende, Portugal/Knox College) also netted his team-high-tying fourth goal of the season and junior Daniel Rodriguez (Caracas, Venezuela/Erskine College) scored his third goal of the year. Senior Vasco Baptista (Alges, Portugal/Escola Secudaria Miraflores) added his team-high-tying fifth assist of the season and freshman Nicolás Cerda (Santiago, Chile/Andree English School) recorded his first collegiate assist. Sophomore Eirik Elvestad (Oslo, Norway/Blindern VGS) made four saves to earn the win.
UDC was led by Axel Gamez and Ivan Meza-Baez who both scored. Simon Birnstad made four saves to take the loss.
Elvestad made an early save to keep the game scoreless. Passera got the scoring started with his first goal of the season in the 16th minute to give the Mavericks an early 1-0 lead.
Mercy forced Birnstad to make three saves before finding the back of the net again in the 43rd minute when Silva scored to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Gamez cut the Mercy lead to 2-1 with a goal in the 58th minute. The Mavericks quickly answered with their third goal of the game in the 60th minute to take a 3-1 lead. Rodriguez finished off a pass from Baptista to give the Mavericks a two-goal lead again.
Breitenbach finished off the scoring for Mercy with a goal in the 66th minute, following a pass from Cerda, to give the Mavericks a comfortable 4-1 lead.
Meza-Baez scored a goal in the 80th minute to trim Mercy's lead to 4-2, but it was not enough as the Mavericks held on for the 4-2 win.
Mercy held a 16-9 edge in shots and an 8-6 edge in shots on goal. Mercy held a 7-5 edge in corner kicks.
Head Coach Pedro Velazquez and the Mavericks resume action on Wednesday, October 5th when they host Southern New Hampshire at 12 p.m.
