Second Half Surge Lifts Polar Bears Over Gulls

BRUNSWICK, Maine – The Endicott men's soccer team traveled to NESCAC foe Bowdoin on Wednesday evening for a strong non-conference matchup. Tonight marked the first meeting between the two squads in program history. After a scoreless first half the Polar Bears nailed two goals within nine minutes of the opening of the second half to secure the 2-0 victory.  Endicott falls to 0-3 (0-0 CCC) while Bowdoin opens up their 2014 season with a 1-0 (0-0 NESCAC) start.

Endicott will see action next on Saturday, September 6^th as they host cross-town rival Salem State for a noon time start in a North Shore Cup matchup. The Polar Bears will look to Saturday as well when they travel to conference opponent Wesleyan for an 11 a.m. kick off.

The scoreless first half was a battle and evenly played as the Polar Bears just outshot the Gulls 4-2.  However Endicott marked two shots on goal to the zero by Bowdoin. In the opening minutes the Gulls worked to earn a tally on the board as senior Stephen Joyce (Rome, N.Y.) shot the first shot on goal of the half for Endicott but Safian made the save to keep the game scoreless.

Bowdoin countered back as they posted two straight shots that the Blue and Green were able to block away. For the remainder of the half, until the last three minutes of the first 45 minutes, neither side could rip another shot. Finally after 25 minutes, Endicott sophomore Ryan Cohane (Easton, Conn.) blasted a shot to goal but again Safian was able to make the stop to end the first half at a stalemate.

The second half was similar to the first but the Polar Bears took the adantage by scoring two early goals. In the opening minutes the Polar Bears took the 1-0 lead after sophomore Matt Dias Costa (Natick, Mass.) received a feed from junior Ben Citrin (Chevy Chase, Md.) on the right and ripped a shot to senior goalkeeper Alex Jorge's (Billerica, Mass.) right side to notch the first goal of the game.

In the 55^th minute the Polar Bears went after it again as they earned a corner kick where junior Andrew Jones (Scarborough, Maine) sent the ball in from the corner to senior back Daniel Melong (Winnipeg, Man.) who then slipped the ball to Citrin who bounced the ball off his leg into the back of the net.

Endicott worked to create offensive pressure playing toe to toe with Bowdoin with strong efforts from junior Abdulla Al Khalifa (Riffa, Bahrain) and Cohane.  While freshman duo Carter Ocko (Danvers, Mass.), and Connor Couchot (Mason, Ohio) and senior capain, Jed Magnusson (Kingston, N.H.) worked a strong defensive unit but it was not enough as the Polar Bears held on to the 2-0 shutout victory in their season opener.

Jorge recorded two stops in the 90 minutes of play while his counterpart Safian made two as well.

The Gulls are eager for their matchup with the Vikings in their third home game of the season. Salem State leads the Blue and Green all-time 8-6-1 while Endicott has taken the North Shore rival for the past two seasons, defeating the Vikings 1-0 in 2012 and 3-2 in 2013.