Falcons Nipped By Corsairs, 2-1

Atemkeng notches lone goal for Green and Gold

Dartmouth, Mass. – The Fitchburg State men's soccer dropped a tough 2-1 decision to the Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth, 2-1 this evening in non-conference action from Cressy Field.

The Basics

Score: Fitchburg State 1, UMass Dartmouth 2
Records: Fitchburg State (0-5-0, 0-1-0 MASCAC | UMass Dartmouth (4-1-1, 1-0-0 LEC)

How It Happened

UMass Dartmouth opened the scoring at the 20:43 mark as freshman Lucas Passaro (Wellesley, Mass.) fired a shot into the lower left corner for his second goal of the 2021 campaign for the 1-0 margin.

Fitchburg State nearly tied the contest in the 31st minute when senior Raphael Coelho (Framingham, Mass.) put a shot on frame off a free kick from 20 yards out, but Corsair netminder Jacob Castro (Swansea, Mass.) turned the shot aside to preserve the 1-0 lead going into the break.

Following the intermission, the Corsairs doubled their lead (2-0) at two and half minutes into the second half with sophomore Brandon Araujo (Fall River, Mass.) received a pass from senior Goncalo Raias (Fall River, Mass.) and tucked the ball inside the far post for his first goal on the year.

The Falcons cut into the deficit in the 56th minute of play as junior Joshua Atemkeng (Peabody, Mass.) settle a loose ball off a rebounded shot from freshman Joseph Haggerty (North Billerica, Mass.) and proceeded to deposit his shot into the lower left corner for his first tally of the year to make the score 2-1.

The Green and Gold continued to pressure late in the contest when Haggarty put shot on target that was stopped by sophomore Jack Waterhouse (Lowell, Mass.) before senior John Javaloyes (Mansfield, Mass.) had hit shot deflect off the crossbar as UMass Dartmouth held on for the 2-1 victory.

Inside the Numbers

• This evening's contest marked the first ninth meeting between Fitchburg State and UMass Dartmouth on the pitch with the Falcons 2-7-0 all-time when taking on the Corsairs
• UMass Dartmouth finished with a 15-11 advantage in shots, while also holding a slim 3-2 margin in corner kicks
• Senior Sebastian Jaramillo (Dracut, Mass.) stopped three shots for the Falcons in the complete game effort
• Waterhouse made five second half saves for the Corsairs

Up Next

Falcons return to action on Saturday when they travel to Worcester State to take on the Lancers for a MASCAC clash, starting at 11:00 AM. Corsairs will host the Anchormen of Rhode Island College next Wednesday for an LEC matchup at 7:00 PM.