Box Score
Video Highlights by Tanner Acebo, Multimedia Specialist
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's soccer team advanced to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Tournament semifinals for the 13th straight year with a 4-1 win over Rivier University on Saturday afternoon.
Senior forward Jacob Zimmerman (Litchfield, N.H.) recorded his fourth career hat trick to lead the Cadets to the victory. Junior Bryan Mazzola (Ridgefield, Conn.) also scored for Norwich to account for the offense.
Zimmerman scored at the 9:46 mark of the first half finishing off a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play with Alex Arvizo (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Carlos Guerra (Mission, Texas).
Guerra sent a through ball to Arvizo who was making a run down the left side of the field. Arvizo collected the pass and fired a centering pass to Zimmerman who lunged and tapped the ball past Rivier starting goalie Collin Deyarmin for his 11th goal of the season and 50th of his career.
Zimmerman pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 32nd minute by burying a shot into the right corner of the net with his left foot off a pass from Dashiell Vermilya (Montpelier, Vt.) for his second of the game and the 51st of his career, which gave him sole possession of third place on the NU all-time scoring list, passing Sani Siric '05.
Norwich extended its lead to 4-0 with two goals late in the second half. Zimmerman scored the first one after he chased down a ball that got behind the Rivier back line after a battle in the air. Zimmerman slipped the ball over a sprawled out Deyarmin who was coming out to challenge, but couldn't get a hand on it.
Mazzola made it 4-0 in the 82nd minute finishing off a beautiful through-ball pass from Alec Brigante (Colchester, Vt.).
Rivier did get one back in the 86th minute with Alex Armstrong scoring his team-leading seventh goal of the season on a free kick from just outside the top of the 18, beating senior goalkeeper Billy Whaley (Northfield, Vt.) to the right corner of the net. Armstrong's goal snapped a 745:15 consecutive shutout minute streak that Whaley and the NU defense had accumulated. The last time Norwich gave up a goal was Sept. 27 in a 3-2 overtime loss to Plymouth State.
Norwich improved to 11-4-3 on the season and will now host three-time defending GNAC champion Johnson & Wales on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. on Sabine Field at Haynes Family Stadium.
