After being shut out in four of its first six games, the Stony Brook men’s soccer team finally hit top gear, using three second-half goals to beat the Fairfield Stags, 4-1, in front of a handful of people at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Tuesday night.
Berian Gobeil Cruz scored twice in a dominating performance for the Seawolves, who improve to 3-3-2 and have won two games in a row.
The Stags struck first in the eighth minute.
Jon Clements hit a powerful shot that flew straight into the top corner of the goal from nearly 35 yards out.
But the Seawolves were having the better of the game, peppering the Fairfield goal and ultimately outshooting the Stags, 18-3, including 9-0 in the second half.
Stony Brook struck back before halftime, with Cruz stripping the ball away from Jonny Raj and hitting a shot from close range into the top of the goal.
The second half was all Seawolves. It was actually Fairfield that wound up scoring the game-winning goal, when, in the 58th minute, Jack Cleverley turned a Christian Molinar cross into his own net.
Stony Brook padded the lead in the 65th minute, with Cruz taking a perfectly timed pass from Leonardo Fernandes and finishing on his first touch, sliding the ball beneath Fairfield’s goalkeeper.
The final tally was scored by Glenn Whelan, who headed home off a laser-like cross from Serigne Sylla.
However, a mere four days later, the Seawolves fell back to their old ways, as the offense was stifled in their game against the University of Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon.
After erupting for four goals against Fairfield, Coach Ryan Anatol and his team could not get anything going against a stingy Pennsylvania defense, getting blanked 3-0, marking the fifth time the team has been shutout this season.
It was a poor performance from the start as the Quakers scored all three of their goals in the first 17 minutes of the contest.
Penn’s leading scorer, Christian Barreiro, got the home team started the right away, scoring in the ninth minute by sneaking a shot into the net off the right goal post.
Penn kept the pressure firmly on the Stony Brook defense and its junior goal keeper, Stefan Manz, scoring again in the 14th minute when Duke Lacroix snuck a shot just underneath the outstretched Manz to boost the Quakers’ lead to 2-0.
The game all but ended in the 18th minute when Penn scored for the third time as Jake Levin hammered one in off a corner kick to put the Seawolves in a 3-0 hole.
Stony Brook would have some chances in the second half but could never get one by Penn’s goal keeper Max Kurtzman.
With the loss, the Seawolves fall to 3-4-2 after winning two in a row at home.
Stony Brook ends its road trip Sunday night when they face off against Temple at 8 p.m.
