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LOWELL, Mass. – An overtime goal in the 93rd minute put on a damper on Senior Night, as the UMass Lowell men's soccer team ended its season with a 1-0 loss to the University of Hartford on Wednesday night.
Javoni Simms received a pass in the box from Udi Cohen, and slid the ball past the keeper and into the net. The win saw the Hawks (10-5-2, 5-2-0) move into the second seed of the conference tournament.
The River Hawks finished the season at 8-9-1 and a third place finish in the America East with a 4-2-1 mark. Before the game tonight, they had a chance to finish with a share of the regular season championship, but UMBC took care of their own business.
Head Coach
Christian Figueroa was pleased with his team's effort and success this season, the second of the four-year transition period.
"I'd say the future's bright and the guys see that as well. The season for us was what we expected, believe it or not. We had goals, we wanted to finish top three in the conference and we did. At the end of the day we were one of three teams that were able to talk before the game about having a chance to win a championship. Out of eight teams, we were one of three, and I think that's a big step for us."
In his final game as a UMass Lowell player, senior
Homero Morais (Somerville, Mass.) had the first opportunity of the game. In the 15th minute Morais took a free kick that deflected off the wall and into the hands of the Hawks' keeper.
The next three quality chances came from the visitors, but
Austin Kroll (Baltimore, Md.) continued his impressive rookie campaign by stopping all three. In the 34th minute Simms had a chance from about eight yards out and Kroll shut the door. Rohan Roye had a point-blank chance in the 44th minute but the freshman came out with a slide to deny the shot.
Wuilito Fernandes (Praia, Cape Verde) almost gave the River Hawks the lead coming out of the halftime break, but after his shot beat David MacKinnon it rang off the post and stayed out of the net.
Hartford had the next opportunity in the 69th minute, but the UMass Lowell defense didn't break under the pressure. After a deflected ball Cohen let go a shot that beat Kroll, but
Augusto Trento (Leominster, Mass.) was on the line to knock the ball away.
Trento almost added to his heroics in the 78th minute, but he poked a cross from
Federico Ferre (Waltham, Mass.) just wide. Three minutes later
Austin Kimball (Exeter, N.H.) sent a rocket from 20-yards leaving MacKinnon to make a leaping save to knock the ball over the cross bar.
Kroll made another sliding save in the 90th minute, this time on Cohen, for his final save of the game. The three-time reigning America East Rookie of the Week made five saves in the season finale.
UMass Lowell outshot the Hawks 17-12, led by eight from Fernandes and five from Morais. Roye led the visitors with four. MacKinnon made five saves as well.
Morais ends his final season with four goals and two assists for 10 points. He will finish his career with 30 goals and 15 assists for 75 points, third best all-time in program history. He also holds the second best career goals mark, and second best single-season goals mark with 13.
"I couldn't be more grateful for a guy like Homero to step foot at UMass Lowell," added Figueroa. "The character he brings and the talent itself, we're just very fortunate and we're for sure going to miss him."
