BROOKLINE — Tuesday night, the Northeastern men’s soccer team picked up their first win of the season. After two draws and two losses, including a loss to Campbell to start CAA play over the weekend, something needed to change.
So when the out-of-conference Merrimack College Warriors came to visit, it was clear Northeastern was in it to win it from the get-go. The Huskies attacked with speed, never taking their foot off the gas, and it paid off with a 4-1 victory.
“We talked about tonight that this was a little bit less about who we were playing and more about us and what we needed to do, and we executed what we exactly wanted to do,” said Northeastern head coach Jeremy Bonomo. “We were hardworking, we wanted to be organized and disciplined, and we were tonight.”
Northeastern came into the game with just two goals on the season — off a free kick and a penalty kick — so the match was the first time they were able to generate productive chances around the net.
“The majority of the games, there hasn’t been a lack of chances, it’s just we haven’t had that quality around the goal and tonight we found it finally and hopefully that continues,” Bonomo said.
Freshman Tomas Sciarra was the star of the show with two goals and an assist, constantly keeping Merrimack’s defense on its heels.
His first order of business was an assist on Kade Tepe’s first career goal in the 22nd minute. Tepe danced between the Merrimack players at the edge of the goal box, and tapped the ball to Sciarra to navigate through the crowd. Sciarra then left the ball for Tepe, as the junior’s one-touch shot sent it into the low right-hand corner of the net to put the Huskies on the board.
Thirteen minutes later, the Warriors evened the tally with a goal from Liam Ziegler. With pressure in the corner, sophomore midfielder Herman Rugland sailed the ball into the goal box. Northeastern tried to head it away, but Ziegler knocked it in with a header of his own.
However, the Huskies responded quickly. Finding an opening up front was Harry Sankey. Assisted by Jaden Prado and Kevin Ogudugu, the graduate student used nearly the exact same placement as Tepe. A low right corner ball across the goal box bulleted past the diving Merrimack goalkeeper and the Huskies were able to regain their lead in time for the half.
By that point, tensions had risen for Merrimack, who were fresh off their second yellow card of the night. They continued that discontent into the latter portion of the evening, opening up the segment with back-to-back yellows just five minutes in. Now, Northeastern was feeling the heat as well, earning a couple of their own to make it four in just 10 minutes.
With all that frustration building up around him, Sciarra found the opportunity to strike again and again and again. In the 47th minute, he placed a shot between the legs of goalkeeper Nelton Semedo, but in an unlucky moment and a stellar piece of defending on Merrimack’s side, defender Rocco DelGiudice ran back to make the save.
But only a minute passed before the freshman tried again. After stripping the ball away from Merrimack in Northeastern’s end, Prado rocketed the ball up to Sciarra on the opposite side of the field. Sciarra ran up past the ball and around an advancing Semedo to shoot on the open net and earn his first career goal.
That wasn’t enough for him, though, as nine minutes later, in the 59th minute of play, a well-placed header gave Sciarra his second of the night. Northeastern had been in possession after a corner kick and kept up the offensive pressure, finding Sciarra up front.
“He worked really hard tonight defensively and offensively,” Bonomo said. “A lot of those goals, it wasn’t necessarily the prettiest goals, but he worked really hard to get them and that’s what it’s all about.”
With three separate goal-scorers, including two first-timers, and the first win of the season, it was an all-around victory for Northeastern. The Huskies outshot and outperformed the Warriors with 21 shots, including 11 on goal, compared to Merrimack’s five attempts with three on-target.
And though he didn’t have to put in quite as many stops as Semedo, Northeastern goaltender Colby Hegarty made his presence known between the posts. In his first start of the season, Hegarty was intentional with his play, coming out of the net to pressure and preventing the need to even make a save.
By the final 20 minutes, both teams knew it was a done deal, so they took the opportunity to share the wealth and make plenty of substitutions. Some rookies got time on the field, and though play got a bit disjointed with nearly an entirely new team out there, they managed to keep it together and hold down the fort as the clock ran out.
Now with a win to their names, the Huskies will return to conference play this weekend as they head to Pennsylvania on Saturday at 1 p.m. to take on Drexel University. Northeastern next returns home for a Tuesday matchup against Harvard at 6 p.m. Sept. 17.