Box Score MANCHESTER, N.H. – Fourth-ranked Southern New Hampshire University nearly rallied from a 3-0 deficit, but Merrimack College held on for a 3-2 Northeast-10 men's soccer victory over the Penmen Wednesday night at Larkin Field. The Warriors improve to 2-1-2 and 1-1 in the NE-10, while the Penmen suffered their first loss of the season and are now 3-1 and 1-1 in the league.
Merrimack scored three times in the first 20:09 of the contest to build a 3-0 advantage. Franklin Pena scored the first goal of the season against Southern New Hampshire at the 7:55 mark. Francis Mulkern made it 2-0 on a feed from Victor Plaza in the 14th minute, while Plaza scored just past the 20-minute mark to make it 3-0.
Southern New Hampshire got on the board with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Yannick Kabala (Manchester, N.H.) delivered a ball into Chris Tsonis (Dartmouth, Mass.) who was standing on the six-yard box. Tsonis spun around a Warrior defender and scored his fourth goal of the season at 35:08.
The Penmen would halve the Warrior lead and make it a 3-2 game with just under 12 minutes to play. Ruben Resendes (Fall River, Mass.) delivered a long free kick from near midfield into the box, which P.J. Burnette (Brunswick, Maine) headed home for his first goal of the season.
SNHU would nearly tie the game with just over a minute to play, but a late header shot would glance off the right post and out of bounds.
Mattias Drummond made seven saves for Merrimack, which was outshot 21-7 by the hosts. Jon Mayo (Merrimack, N.H.) made one save for the Penmen, who saw a 14-match home unbeaten streak fall by the wayside.
SNHU also allowed its first goal at Larkin Field since September 4, 2010, a span of 10 games and a total of 1006:27 of game action.
Southern New Hampshire returns to action Saturday night when it hosts ninth-ranked and unbeaten Franklin Pierce University in a rematch of last season's NCAA Tournament second round contest. That match is slated for a 7:00 start at Larkin Field.
