Box Score NEWTON, Mass. – The Norwich University men's soccer team saw its bid for its third straight appearance in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) final end with a 3-1 loss to No. 1-seeded Lasell on Wednesday in the GNAC Tournament Semifinals at Taylor Field.
Reigning GNAC Player of the Year Mike Skelton scored twice for Lasell as the Lasers rallied from a 1-0 deficit to score three straight goals and advance to their first-ever GNAC championship match.
After a scoreless first half, Norwich (11-4-4) struck first blood just under 11 minutes into the second when freshman striker Alec Brigante (Colchester, Vt.) scored his seventh goal of the season off an assist from Christian Albrecht (Albuquerque, N.M.).
Albrecht found Brigante all alone with a crossing pass into the box from the right wing. Brigante trapped the ball with his chest and then headed the ball that banked off the left post and into the back of the net to put Norwich up 1-0.
Lasell (15-3-1) responded though less than three minutes later when Skelton netted his 18th goal of the season and 51st of his career off a free kick from 20 yards out. Skelton hit a hard shot that curled over the Norwich wall of defenders and into the top left corner of the net to knot the match.
Skelton struck again just under six minutes later by burying a low shot into the left corner of the net through traffic to give Lasell the lead for good. Conor Fitzgerald picked up the assist on the goal.
Senior midfielder Nery Guera put the final nail in the coffin with 3:45 left with a long strike that beat Norwich goalkeeper Christian Hallstrom (Las Vegas, Nev.) into the right bottom corner of the net after he got a glove on it. Servi Barrientos picked up his team-leading eighth assist of the season.
Although there were no goals in the first half, both teams weren't short of chances. Lasell had a flurry of chances in the opening 20 minutes. However, Hallstrom was magnificent for the Cadets, making three outstanding saves to keep the Lasers off the board.
Barrientos was in alone just over four minutes into the match but Hallstrom came off his line and punched the ball away from danger. Eight minutes later, Hallstrom stoned Brennan Adams with a kick save after Adams got behind the NU defense on a long ball over the top.
With 27:50 left in the first, Sokol Bako was stoned by a Norwich team defensive save. Just over a minute later Cedric Dybaud was stoned by another kick save from Hallstrom after he dribbled past a NU defender into space in the box.
Adams came the closest to scoring with 23:53 left in the half when he just pushed a diving header wide of the left post by inches with the Norwich defense scrambling.
Norwich started to turn the momentum its way late in the first half with Brigante narrowly missing over the cross bar off a cross from Morin from the right.
With 6:45 left, Morin scored what looked like a goal initially but was called back due to being offside.
Lasell outshot Norwich 28-12 and had six corner kicks to the Cadets' two.
Hallstrom made nine saves for Norwich, while Colmenares had four saves for Lasell to pick up the victory. Hallstrom's consecutive shutout minutes streak came to an end after 547:18 straight minutes.
Norwich's eight seniors compiled a 44-16-10 record to date and will wait to see if they will get a chance to continue their careers with a possible Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) New England Tournament bid. The Cadets have played in the ECAC Tournament each of the last two years, making the semifinals in 2011 and losing in the quarterfinals in 2012.
