LOWELL, Mass. – Senior Borna Miklic (Kutina, Croatia) tallied a goal and an assist as the UMass Lowell men's soccer team (2-5-3, 0-1-1 AE) took down the Hartford Hawks (0-10-0), 3-1, Wednesday night at Cushing Field.
 
Alongside Miklic, both junior Guillermo Francés Poquet (Enguera, Valencia) and sophomore Jonathan Ferreira (Ashland, Mass.) added in a goal, while graduate student Javier Torres (Málaga, Spain) had an assist of his own. In net, junior Loucas Costeas (Nicosia, Cyprus) played all 90 minutes and recorded a save.

"I mean I don't think there is any easy game in college soccer," said head coach Kyle Zenoni. "Obviously we went down 1-0, but we played pretty well. We had 31 shots in the game to their five. I was happy for our guys to come back and keep fighting. I thought their second half performance was really good."

The River Hawks started the game with an aggressive offensive attack that pressured the Hawks' defense. In the third minute, the hosts fired off three corner kicks in a row that were all rejected by Hartford. UMass Lowell continued to fire off shots over the next ten minutes of action but were unable to find the back of the net. In the 24th minute, after a defensive turnover by the River Hawks in their own box, Hartford capitalized and fired off a shot that just went by the goaltender, giving the Hawks a 1-0 advantage.
 
The best opportunity in the first half for the River Hawks came in the 30th minute when senior Alessandro Marongiu (Villa San Pietro, Italy) fed a high ball into the box for senior Denis Petro (Michalovce, Slovakia), who was able to get a head on it, but a diving save from the Hartford goalie kept UMass Lowell off the board. Although the River Hawks held a 13-3 shot advantage, Hartford took a 1-0 lead into the break.
 
Coming out of the locker room, the River Hawks continued to pressure the Hawks' defense, firing off four shots in the first eight minutes of the half. In the 61st minute, UMass Lowell found their equalizer. After Torres fired a shot that was rejected by the goalkeeper, Ferreira sprinted into the box, collected the rebound, and launched a shot into the net.
 
With under 15 minutes to play, the River Hawks continued to dominate possession while looking for their opportunity to take the lead. After a Hartford goal kick was deflected by Ferreira, Miklic collected the ball and sprinted past a Hawks' defender before lobbing a shot over the diving keeper, giving the hosts their first lead of the night. With under 30 seconds to play, Francés Poquet sealed the 3-1 victory with his third goal of the year, which came off a rebound from his previous shot.
 
Next up, the River Hawks travel to Baltimore to take on UMBC at Retriever Soccer Park on Saturday, October 8. Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.