October 21 at New Hampshire (7 p.m.)
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Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkMSoc
LOWELL, Mass. – The No. 14 UMass Lowell men's soccer team continues its three-game road swing and heads up I-495 to take on the New Hampshire Wildcats, under the lights at 7 p.m. in a clash of two of the top three teams in the conference.
River Hawk Rewind
The River Hawks extended their unbeaten streak to 12 games and winning streak to three following two America East wins last week, defeating Vermont 2-1 on October 12 and shutting out Stony Brook, 1-0, on Oct. 16.
Wuilito Fernandes (Praia, Cape Verde) scored in the 25th minute, and
Joe Kellett (Norfolk, Mass.) notched his first career tally, a game-winning header in the 86th minute to knock off the Catamounts.
Ivan Abramovic (Zagreb, Croatia) fired a freekick home in the 23rd minute for the only goal against the Seawolves. Keeper
Austin Kroll (Baltimore, Md.) made seven saves over the week, and with the two wins moved into sole possession of third all-time in program history with 25 wins.
Leading the Flock
Fernandes leads the team with a career-high eight goals, third in America East, and adds two assists for 18 points, while Abramovic has seven goals and a team-high seven assists, second in America East, for 21 points. Ruiz is third with three goals and third on the team with three helpers, as
Dario Jovanovski (Zagreb, Croatia) sits second with four.
Ivan Blaskic (Zagreb, Croatia) has one tally and two assists so far in his first season as River Hawks. In net, Kroll has allowed seven goals on 118 shots, recording 27 saves and continues to lead the conference with a 0.55 goals against average and .829 save percentage.
Scouting New Hampshire
The Wildcats (10-4-0, 2-2-0) enter the week in third place following a 2-1 victory againt Binghamton on Oct. 15 to snap their two-game skid. Chris Arling leads the team and conference with 12 goals and 25 points, averaging 0.86 goals per game. Chris Wingate has a team-high seven helpers and Jack Dickson sits second on the squad with five tallies. Between the pipes, Andrew Pesci has stopped 53 shots to lead the conference, while having a 0.93 GAA and .803 save percentage.
Series History
New Hampshire left Lowell with a 3-0 win last season to take a 2-1 lead in the all-time series. The lone River Hawks' win came back in 2014, a 1-0 decision in Durham on a
Jacob Fitzgerald (Pepperell, Mass.) second-half tally.
Home Sweet Home
The River Hawks sit at 4-0-2 at Cushing Field this season and have posted a 13-7-3 home record since 2014.
Road Warriors
UMass Lowell has been of the best road teams in the country this season, posting a perfect 6-0 start in games away from Cushing Field. The six wins ties the most on the road since the 2012 season.
Election Season
For the fifth straight week the River Hawks found themselves in the NSCAA DI National Poll, taking the No. 14 spot and 18 in the College Soccer News Top 30 poll. The program cracked the top 10 in the RPI for the second-straight week, entering the week at No. 9. UMass Lowell remains one of three unbeaten schools in the country and the squad also finds itself the top-ranked squad in the East for the sixth 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 third all-time with 25 career wins and in fourth with 17 career blank sheets. With 1145:26 of total playing time this season, he has moved into sixth all-time with 4,355:28 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.
