Norwich breezes past Green Mountain 6-0
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's soccer team couldn't have had a much better debut in its 2013 season opener on Friday afternoon against Green Mountain College.
Young opened the scoring just 5:04 into the contest to give the Cadets the lead that they would never look back from again. He worked a give-and-go with fellow senior Eric Weir (Ipswich, Mass.) to create space and then buried a shot past a diving Kevin Purdy into the left corner of the net.
Just 2:02 later Keslin headed home a perfect volley pass off the foot of senior captain Ryan Campbell (Damascus, Md.) to stretch the lead to 3-0.
Baker made it 4-0 at the 34:58 mark of the first by roofing a shot just under the cross bar off a pass from Spillane. Bacon made it 5-0 a little less than 2:30 later when he headed home a crossing pass also from Spillane. Brigante closed out the scoring at the 39:00 mark when he tapped home a pass from Anthony Amell (Northfield, Vt.) after Amell faked out the goalie to leave a two on zero in front of the net.
Junior goalkeeper Greg Payne (State College, Pa.) picked up the victory for the Cadets making one save in 30:52. Fellow junior Christian Hallstrom (Las Vegas, Nev.) relieved Payne and made one save as well in 44:33 of action. Freshman Kevin Taylor (Natick, Mass.) completed the team shutout for Norwich by recording his first minutes of college action in the final 15 minutes of the match.
Norwich outshot Green Mountain College 37-4 and had 16 corner kicks to the Eagles' two.
Norwich will look to clinch its second straight Cadet Kickoff Classic title on Saturday afternoon when it takes on Johnson State at 1 p.m. Mass. College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will face Green Mountain College at 11 a.m. in the other matchup.
