Today: Mar 29, 2024

Strong second half powers SNHU past Southern

Michael RiccioSports Editor

Southern New Hampshire took care of business against the Owls Wednesday night, coming back with three goals in the second half to win 4-2.

The Penmen (9-0, 5-0) came in ranked 6th in Division II and sit a top the NE10 conference standings. Owls head coach Tom Lang said the team does not pay too much attention to the rankings, however, but they understood how good SNHU was.

“It’s a big rivalry for us over all the years that we’ve played them,” Lang said. “We knew we had to be better on the night and they came away deserving winners.”

The Penmen jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal from Andre Pereira, but Devante Teixeira scored goals in the 36th and 40th minute for the Owls (5-3, 3-2) to give them a 2-1 lead at halftime. Teixeira, in his junior season, now has four goals on the year, and three in the last two games. He said said he wants to be a spark and be aggressive, especially if the Owls are down.

“I’m just trying to do anything for the team,” Teixeira said. “Whether it’s assisting, scoring, or defense. Goals are coming for me though and I’m thankful for it.”

Five minutes into the second half, the Penmen tied the game on a goal by Alex Satrustegui. Five minutes later, they had the lead again as Satrustegui scored his 15th goal of the season. Satrustegui would then assist on a goal by Tom Marriott to give the Penmen a 4-2 lead in the 71st minute.

The three goals given up by the Owls in the second half were the most they have given up in any half this year since the season opener against Mercy College. Lang said he felt SNHU executed better in second half as comparted to Southern.

“I don’t think there was any real big adjustments that they made,” Lang said. “They took advantage of a couple of errors and they punished us. That’s what good teams do.”

The Penmen took 17 shots against the Owls defense, 10 in the second half, as compared to nine for the game for the Owls. Goalkeeper Jake Davis, a graduate transfer from King University in Tennessee, started for the fifth time this season. He said it’s tough when the other team is taking so many shots but the team has to work through it.

“We conceded four goals, it’s a lot.” Davis said. “It hurts.”

The Owls next game is on the road on Saturday against Assumption, who are 5-2-1 and 3-1-1 in conference play. Davis said the following games come fast and feels the team plays well at times and wants to carry that into the weekend.

“We have to take those moments and expand on them,” Davis said. “If we can play that way for the full 90 minutes we’re going to win a lot of games and do fine in this league.”

Lang said he will prepare for Assumption just like any other game by taking the time to evaluate the Owls performance.

“We’ll look at things we did well and try to keep building on those and look at the things that need to be worked on and keep working on those,” Lang said. “We have to bounce back from this and be ready for Assumption. It’s a difficult place to go play and it’ll be a difficult challenge for us.

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