Wesleyan wins against Salve Regina

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - Playing for just the fourth time ever and the first time in 15 years, Wesleyan hosted Salve Regina in men's soccer action here this evening and overcame its visitor by a 4-0 count.  Wesleyan scored twice in each half, led by junior Brandon Sousa, who scored the Cardinals' third goal and set up the fourth with his long free kick to the head of junior Chris Kafina.  Sousa was one of two Cardinals players to factor into more than one goal on the evening. The second was sophomore Danny Rubenstein, who had two helpers.  The contest was played at night on Wesleyan's new artificial turf field rather than its usual unlit grass field.  

Wesleyan, which had not scored more than two goals in a game this year, opened the scoring in the 17th minute on a great individual effort by senior Omar Bravo.  Racing with a Salve defender for a long ball by Rubenstein in the Salve end, the two players met at the ball and both made contact and went down.  Bravo jumped up quickly and collared the loose ball, going in alone on Seahawk starting keeper junior Daniel Stern, beating him with a hard shot inside the left post for his first goal of the year.  

Senior Matt Lynch made it a 2-0 Wesleyan lead just before halftime as he finished off a great series of passes by sliding onto a center pass from senior Matt Hertgen from the right side, pushing the ball into the net from the middle of the box for his second goal of the year.  The play started with a pass by freshman Gabe Tagliamonte on the left side to freshman Taylor Chin, who carried the ball deep into the left corner.  He sent a long pass across the field to Hertgen, who reacted with a quick pass back to the middle.  Chin also got an assist on the score in the 42nd minute.

Just 2:03 into the second half, Sousa made it 3-0 with his second marker of the campaign, slotting in a shot from the middle off a centering pass by Rubenstein from low in the left side.  The game's final goal came off the head of Kafina in the 55th minute as Sousa sent a ball about 40 yards from high on the right with a free kick to the middle of the box in front of the left post.  It was Kafina's second seasonal goal.  

In the three previous meetings between Wesleyan and Salve, neither team scored more than two goals as Wesleyan had victories of 1-0 and 2-0 while Salve owns a 2-1 overtime win.  In its previous 10 games this season, the Seahawks had not yielded more than two goals.  Each of Salve's five earlier losses this year came by just one goal.

Wesleyan had a 16-8 edge in total shots, 12-3 in shots on net.  Wesleyan took 10 corner kicks to just one by Salve.  Stern finished the game with four saves in his 75:35 of action.  Freshman Bryan McCormack, seeing the first action of his career, made one save in the final 14:25.  Salve also had three team saves as defenders prevented three other goals with clears from in front of the net.  Wesleyan senior Emmett McConnell made three saves in his 75:35 of action.  Sophomore Jack Katkavich covered the net for the remainder of the contest for Wesleyan.

Ahead for the Cardinals is a key NESCAC and Little Three matchup at Williams Sat., Oct. 11.  Up next for Salve Regina is a trip to CCC rival Roger Williams Saturday.