Mitchell Tops CCNY In Soccer Opener

Mitchell College's men's soccer season got off to a good start on Monday with a 6-2 home field win over City College of New York. The following information was provided by David Longolucco, sports information director at Mitchell College:

Seniors James Gleason (Old Lyme, Conn./Hyde School) and Dustin Huguenin (Gales Ferry, Conn./Ledyard) each scored twice for the Mariners (1-0-0 overall) while classmate Ricardo Mclean (Narragansett R.I./Bishop Hendricken) and freshman Frank Williams (Westerly, R.I./Westerly) also found the back of the net. Samuel Nkama (Aba, Nigeria/HS for Excellence) and Nick Woolley (Port-au-Prince, Haiti/Royal Palm Beach) found the scoring column for the Beavers (1-2-0 overall). 

Mitchell struck first in the 21^st minute when Williams netted his first collegiate goal. The play started with a long goal kick from senior Kevin Woodford (Niantic, Conn./Morgan School) that seemed destined for Gleason in Mitchell’s offensive end. Gleason, however, let the ball bounce through, and the speedy Williams tracked it down and put it home for the 1-0 lead.

CCNY tied the game just over three minutes later on a pretty goal by Nkama, who took a pass from Tenzin Migmar (Ihasa, Tibet/Science & Math) on the right side and volleyed it past Woodford. The goal was Nkama’s third of the season.

Huguenin put the Mariners back on top in the 35^th minute with his first goal of the afternoon. Gleason slid him a pass just inside the box on the left side, and Huguenin deposited a shot just inside the far post to put Mitchell ahead 2-1. Gleason later made it 3-1 with just over a minute to play in the first half. The goal came off a corner kick in which senior Tommy Derosier (Brooklyn, Conn./Killingly) served the ball into the box, and Williams settled it to Gleason for a blast from the left side.  

A red card late in the first half left CCNY a man down for the entire second half, and Mitchell took advantage by scoring three goals in the first 30 minutes of the stanza to go up 6-1. Huguenin scored his second goal of the game on a penalty kick in the 61^st minute, and Gleason added his second on a long pass over the defense from Mclean that he chased down and finished into an open net. Mclean then added a goal off an assist by junior Shawn Thurston (Post Mills, Vt./Thetford Academy) to complete the scoring for the Mariners.

Woolley netted the game’s final goal in the 83^rd minute on a nice feed from Reuben Elie (San Juan, Trinidad & Tobago/San Juan). Elie patiently dribbled along the end line and found space to play a ball for Woolley at the near post for his first score of the season.

Woodford finished with four saves and allowed one goal in just over 73 minutes of work before turning things over to freshman Ramazan Sinani (Waterbury, Conn./Crosby). CCNY starting keeper Tayfun Kucuk (Paterson, N.J./Kennedy) made seven saves but allowed all six goals.

Mitchell returns to action at home against Emmanuel College on Wednesday, September 7 at 4 p.m. CCNY will next host New Jersey City University on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.