October 12 vs Vermont (7 p.m.)
Watch Live | Live Stats
October 16 at Stony Brook (2 p.m.)
Watch Live | Live Stats
Twitter: @RiverHawkMSoc @RiverHawkNation
LOWELL, Mass. – The No. 18 UMass Lowell (8-0-2, 1-0-1) men's soccer team readies for a two-game week, entertaining Vermont on Wednesday before heading to Long Island to face Stony Brook on Sunday.
The River Hawks will wear special pink jerseys against Vermont in honor of cancer awareness. Following the tilt, the jerseys will be part of an online auction on GoRiverHawks.com/auctions. All proceeds will be donated to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
River Hawk Rewind
Ivan Abramovic (Zagreb, Croatia) scored two goals as UMass Lowell earned its first win against UMBC in program history with a 4-0 shutout on the road. The redshirt-freshman registered the game-winning tally in the 12th minute and made it 3-0 in the 63rd minute.
Stanley Alves (Framingham, Mass.) scored his first career River Hawk goal in the 55th minute and
Carlos Ruiz (East Boston, Mass.) added a penalty kick goal to wrap up the scoring two minutes after Abramovic's second goal.
Wuilito Fernandes (Praia, Cape Verde) tied a career-high with two assists in the match, and
Austin Kroll (Baltimore, Md.) made four saves in the shutout.
Leading the Flock
Fernandes leads the team with a career-high seven goals (16 points), while Abramovic has six goals and a team-high seven assists for 19 points. Ruiz is third with three goals and second on the team with three helpers, tied with
Dario Jovanovski (Zagreb, Croatia).
Ivan Blaskic (Zagreb, Croatia) has one tally and two assists so far in his first season as River Hawks. In net, Kroll has allowed six goals on 99 shots, recording 27 saves and a goals against average of 0.56.
Scouting Vermont
The Catamounts (9-3-1, 1-1-0) is coming off a 4-0 loss at UAlbany on Oct. 7 after defeating Stony Brook 2-1 on Oct. 1. Vermont is led by the duo of Brian Wright (7G, 9A) and Bernard Yeboah (9G, 3A) with 23 and 21 points, respectively. Stefan Lamanna and Loftur Eriksson each have three goals and one assist for seven points apiece. Vermont has started two keepers between the pipes, as Eric Venezia has gone 5-1 with a 1.52 GAA and Aron Runarsson is 4-2 with a 1.16 GAA.
Scouting Stony Brook
Stony Brook (6-3-2, 1-1-0) travel to Hartford on Oct. 12 before hosting the River Hawks on Sunday. The Seawolves are coming off a 2-0 home win against No. 25 New Hampshire Oct. 8 to pick up their first conference win of the season. Vince Erdei has a team-high five goals for 10 points, while Thibault Duval has four goals and one assist for nine points. Serge Gamwanya has dished out four assists to sit atop the team. Tom McMahon has made 10 starts in net, recording a 1.06 GAA and a 0.776 save percentage with five shutouts.
Series History
UMass Lowell and Vermont have tied in all three all-time meetings, with the previous two being scoreless. The River Hawks are 5-1-1 against Stony Brook, and are riding a three-game winning streak following last year's 2-0 win.
Home Sweet Home
The River Hawks sit at 3-0-2 at Cushing Field this season and have posted a 12-7-3 home record since 2014.
Road Warriors
UMass Lowell has been of the best road teams in the country this season, posting a perfect 5-0 start in games away from Cushing Field. The five wins marks the best record on the road since the 2012 squad won six contests in opponent's territory.
Election Season
For the fourth straight week the River Hawks found themselves in the NSCAA DI National Poll, taking the No. 18 spot and 20 in the College Soccer News Top 30 poll. The program cracked the top 10 in the RPI, entering the week at No. 9. UMass Lowell remains the lone unbeaten America East school, and the squad also finds itself the top-ranked squad in the East for the fifth consecutive week, according to the NSCAA Division I Regional Poll.
Playing From Ahead
Before succumbing the first goal against Brown, UMass Lowell had only trailed for 1:47 this season, coming in the first game of the season at Northeastern. From
Ben Waithe's (Plymouth, Mass.) game tying goal, the River Hawks went 452 consecutive minutes without trailing.
Saving Space in the Records
Kroll now sits fourth all-time with 23 career wins and 16 career blank sheets. With 965:26 of total playing time this season, he has moved into seventh all-time with 4,175:28 minutes in a River Hawk uniform.
And That Was Talking Soccer
Abramovic's game-winning goal from Sept. 4 earned a spot on SportsCenter's Top 10 list at number 4. The tally appeared on Fox Soccer and took home the Top Drawer Soccer Goal of the Week.
Notables
Abramovic picked up his third Rookie of the Week award and was named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week (10.10) ... Ruiz was named one of the 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award (10.7) ... Fernandes earned America East Player of the Week and College Soccer News National Team of the Week honors (9.12) ... Abramovic took consecutive America East Rookie of the Week awards (8.29-9.6) … with five wins this season, Figueroa has reached 51 wins during his coaching career at UMass Lowell.
