Bison beat Seahawks with two late goals, 2-1

NEWPORT, R.I. – Junior Tiago Prazeres (West Hartford, Conn.) scored his first goal of the season as the Nichols College men's soccer team defeated Salve Regina University, 2-1, in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play Saturday afternoon at Reynolds Field.

The Bison have now won their last three conference-openers. Salve Regina leads the all-time series, 17-6-2.

Salve Regina (2-3-0, 0-1-0) struck first when senior Issa Demirgioglu (Smithfield, R.I.) got one past senior goaltender Jeremy Nash (West Springfield, Mass.). The goal was the first one allowed by Nash in 220 minutes this season. Senior Alex Wasilewski (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) was tabbed with  the assist on the play.

The Seahawks went into the half with a 1-0 lead. Nash stopped a penalty kick by junior Mark Marino (Smithfield, R.I.) in the 47th minute

Both teams came out with a more offensive approach in the second half, but it wasn't until the 83rd minute that Prazeres was able to best junior Daniel Stern (Kings Park, N.Y.) to tie things up 1-1.

With less than two minutes remaining in regulation, freshman Cooper Milano (Caldwell, N.J.) passed it over to his classmate Paul Sickinger (Tyngsboro, Mass.) who then put it into the back of the net with a bicycle kick to seal the deal for the Bison.

Nichols (4-0-1, 1-0-0) was led by Prazeres with three shots while Sickinger and freshman Rielee Mohsin (Stuart, Fla.) added two shots of their own. Demirgioglu, Wasilewski, and sophomore Nolan Brady (Needham, Mass.) led Salve Regina with two shots each.

Nash improves to 2-0-1 on the season after picking up three saves in the game. Stern stopped six Bison shots but falls to 1-3-0 on the season.

The Bison host Massachusetts Maritime on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the Nichols Soccer Field. The Seahawks travel to UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday at 7 p.m.