Story written and posted by Anthony Perry '08, Fisher College Associate Director of Athletics
NEW LONDON, CONN. – The Fisher College Men's Soccer team held on this afternoon for a 2-2 draw at Mitchell College in the team's season opening contest. Down a man for most of the match, the Falcons jumped out to a 2-0 lead before watching the Mariners storm back with a pair of tallies for the tie. Each team is now 0-0-1 on the young season.
Newcomers, junior Mitchell Bourdeau (St. Albans, Vt.) and freshman Tim Schwarz (Wiesbaden, Germany) both notched goals for the Falcons, who held the two-goal advantage 56 minutes into the contest. In the 23rd minute, a turnover in the front half led to junior Lois Cougoulou (La Ciotat, France) collecting the ball and sending it deep down into the corner for Schwarz. Schwarz then sent a pass into the 6-yard box which took a fortunate bounce off the Mariner defender before Bourdeau capitalized and gave the Falcons an early 1-0 lead.
Schwartz then made it a 2-0 lead in the 50th minute. After an errant pass from the Mariners, junior Hugo Rodriguez (Madrid, Spain) quickly found Bourdeau, who then riffled a pass to a sprinting Schwarz down the middle of the field. Schwarz collected the pass at the top of the 18 yead box, took two steps before placing the ball in the lower left 90 for his first collegiate goal.
Mitchell continued to fight down the stretch as they were able to take advantage of a Fisher foul. Nick Ghirardi (East Lyme, Conn.) took the free kick and found sophomore Flavio Alvarado (New London, Conn.) who gave it over to junior Dylan Lucey (Lebanon, Conn.) for a header and the Mariners first goal of the contest.
As the time was nearing completion, Mitchell junior Matt Ladd (Griswold, Conn.) threw a ball into the box where Alvardo was able to control it and sneak it past the diving keeper to knot things up at 2 apiece. The Mariners had an opportunity late in the contest to steal the win as a penalty kick was awarded to them with 40 seconds remaining. However, the shot sailed high over the cross bar and the teams played to a 2-2 tie.
Junior goalkeeper Eduardo Navarro (Tucson, Ariz.) made five saves in his Falcon debut while senior Dylan Kinsella (Waterbury, Conn.) recorded saves in the draw. Mitchell outshot Fisher, 20-13 over the 90 minutes as Schwarz (four shots) and Lucey (seven shots) led the way for their teams respectively.
Fisher will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon as they travel up to Vermont State University – Lyndon for a 4pm kickoff. The Mariners will also be in action on Tuesday as they travel to Elms College for a 7pm conference tilt.