After the final whistle blew on Tuesday in Amherst, Massachusetts, the UNH men’s soccer team was still undefeated. The Wildcats beat the UMass Minutemen 4-1 in a game that saw the Wildcats score four unanswered goals after trailing by one.
Each half had a different tempo to it. The entire first half was scoreless as neither team was able to put a point on the board. Once the second half got underway, the flood gates opened offensively.
UMass scored first with a goal by Samuel Asamoah at the 47:10 mark. It wasn’t long before UNH answered back as they scored only seconds after, 35 to be exact, as freshman forward/midfielder Jack Dickson scored his first goal of the season to tie the score at one.
The Wildcats would go on a torrid pace, as three more goals would come in a 10-minute span, putting UNH up 4-1. The score line would remain the same until the end of regulation. Overall the team put on an impressive performance.
“Once we got one goal we started rolling and we were able to close the game out,” Sophomore forward Chris Arling said about the teams performance. “We wanted to get the shutout as a challenge but didn’t. However, we did get some guys in for some quality minutes.”
The contest saw a pair of firsts for some players on the team. Along with Dickson, senior midfielder William Picoux scored his first goal of the season. Picoux was the one that scored the fourth and final goal of the game, which sealed the outcome for the Wildcats.
Sophmore Alex Valencia also got on the board as he scored at 63:20, which puts his tally at two and is good for second most on the team.
Arling continues to be in great form right now as he netted a goal at the 60:34 mark of the game. This is now the third straight game Arling has scored which puts him at three for the season.
“We have [67] shots in the past couple games,” Arling said. “It’s just a matter of who is going to score the goals, being in the right position at the right time and having the right people around me to score.”
“It’s good that your leading scorer on the team is your striker and that’s the way it should be,” head coach Mark Hubbard said “Arling has taken a good jump in terms of his confidence and composure in front of the net.”
Freshman back Ben Gleditsch played the role of facilitator during the game as he assisted two of the four goals for the team.
The team as a whole shot 27 times against UMass, with 10 being on target. It wasn’t all offense as the defense showed their prowess when they only allowed eight shots to get through for the entire game. Of those eight, three were on target with one hitting the back of the net. As it stands, UNH has given up three goals and has scored 11, putting them at a plus eight differential.
Hubbard recognizes his team’s performance lately but knows that allowing one goal could be costly.
“When it gets later in the season as games get tighter and teams scout each other more,” Hubbard said “One goal games are what they all are so you have to prevent the easy ones. If we give up a wonder goal, that’s something we can’t prevent. However, we can clean up the easy ones and work on preventing them.”
The Wildcats’ next game is on Friday, Sept. 9 as the team travels to Worcester, Massachusetts to face Holy Cross at Linda Johnson Smith Soccer Field. Kickoff starts at 7:35 p.m.
