Men's Soccer

Rockville Centre, N.Y. - The top-seeded Molloy men's soccer team advanced to the ECC Final after it played the fourth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan Redhawks to a 3-3 draw and won 5-4 in penalty kicks Thursday evening at John A. Darcy Field. The Lions moved to 8-4-7 overall with the tie, while Roberts Wesleyan moved to 7-4-6.
 
How it Happened

• First chances for the home team came in the seventh minute when junior Danny Muir and sophomore Matt Laya-Vetell sent shots wide of the next on consecutive opportunities.
• The Redhawks only mustered one shot in the first half but made the most of it, as Tamas Nagy scored in the 20^th minute to put Roberts Wesleyan ahead, 1-0.
• Sophomore Gio Fabiano collected the only shot on goal for the Lions in the opening half. The chance was saved by Roberts Wesleyan goalkeeper Jared Gibbons in the 27^th minute.
• The contest went into halftime with Roberts Wesleyan in front, 1-0.
• The second stanza began with Nagy firing his second shot of the evening for his second goal of the contest. The road team lead, 2-0, in the 54^th minute.
• Over the next 20 minutes of action, the Redhawks stifled the Molloy attack with stellar defense from the backline.
• Molloy broke through in the 75^th minute, a free kick from senior J.P. Rodriguez found the head of graduate student Nicolay Kutzop to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
• With time running down and emotions high, Molloy won a corner kick in the 87^th minute. Rodriguez took the corner, fired into the 18-yard box, and after a scrum in front junior Ryan Dobson found the back of the net to knot the contest at two, where the game would hold and send the ECC semifinal into overtime.
• The first overtime period, graduate student Nick Conklu made a save in the 98^th minute to keep the game tied.
• In the 105^th minute, it was Nagy who netted a hat-trick goal to regain the lead for Roberts Wesleyan, 3-2, heading into the final 10-minute overtime period.
• The second overtime period was all defensive as neither backline allowed any opportunities in the first eight minutes.
• In the 119^th minute, graduate student Matthais Adamek sent a ball into the 18-yard box that deflected off a defender, pulled the goalie off his line, and found the right boot of Rodriguez who blasted it into the net to bring the game all square at three. The game was set to go to penalty kicks.
• Roberts Wesleyan began the penalty kick shootout with a goal, and it was answered by Kutzop to knot the shootout at 1-1.
• In the second round, graduate student Nick Conklu denied Alex Perez Vega, and junior Jonas Jacobson netted his kick to propel Molloy ahead, 2-1 in the shootout.
• The teams went back and forth in rounds three, four, and five. The shootout was tied at 4-4 with senior captain Orlando Zambrano Jr. with the task to send the Lions to the final. The Flushing native stepped to the penalty spot and buried his goal into the bottom right corner to clinch the shootout, 5-4, and send Molloy to the ECC Final for the second time in as many years.

 
Top Performances

• Kutzop netted his first goal of his Molloy career.
• Dobson and Rodriguez tallied goals.
• Zambrano Jr. added an assist and the game-winning penalty kick goal.
• Conklu made two saves.

 
Up Next
The Lions will host the ECC Final and take on the third-seeded Mercy College Mavericks Sunday, November 6 at John A. Darcy Field. The match is set for a 12:00 p.m. kick-off.

Provided by the Molloy Sports Information Department.