Leonardo Fernandes came through again for the Stony Brook men’s soccer team, with another late goal to help lead his team to a 2-1 victory over Hartford on Saturday, in what was a rematch of last year’s America East championship game.
The senior midfielder scored the go-ahead goal in the 73rd minute off a pass from Berian Gobeil Cruz. He was able to score the goal from about 25 yards out after making a strong move to get past two defenders.
The win puts the Seawolves at 9-3-1 overall, and 3-1 in America East conference play, and trail Vermont by just one point. They are also now unbeaten in their last five road games (4-0-1), and are 5-1-1 in true road games this year.
Stony Brook took the first lead of the game in the 25th minute when senior Raphael Abreu scored for the second straight game. Abreu received a ball played into him, moved towards Hawks goalkeeper Viltsu Tuumi and took a point blank shot at him. Tuumi made the save but could not control the shot, and the ball popped out to a Hartford defender. Abreu anticipated the play and stole it from him and then swatted the ball into the goal, far side.
Hartford tied the game up in the 63rd minute when Anthony Santaga was able to head the ball past Seawolves goalkeeper Stefan Manz, off a pass from Rohan Roye. This was one of the few chances the Hawks had on the night as Stony Brook’s defense did a great job of shutting down Hartford’s offense. They did not allow a shot on goal in the game until the 62nd minute and only allowed two shots on goal the entire night.
Fernandes has had knack for coming up with big goals during his collegiate career. He had two goals in Stony Brook’s America East championship game win over Hartford last fall. Today’s game winner was Fernandes’ fifth game winner of the season, and the twelfth of his career. He also now has a career total of 30 goals and 75 points.
Scoring first in games has been a key for Stony Brook during Coach Ryan Anatol’s tenure. The Seawolves are 16-1-1 with Anatol as coach, when they score first.
Stony Brook will now return home to play UMBC this Friday night. The Seawolves only have four regular season games remaining, and three of them are against conference opponents.
