Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's soccer team scored four first-half goals to overpower Dean College in the first-ever meeting between the two programs on Wednesday night at Sabine Field.
Junior Joseph Thongsythavong (Salem, Mass.) and Mamadi Jiana (Chicopee, Mass.) each scored a goal and had an assist to lead the Norwich offense in the victory. Senior Amerle Nemeye (Burlington, Vt.) chipped in with two assists.
Dante Mancini (Hopedale, Mass.) and Brayan Ramirez (Scottsdale, Ariz.) each scored goals as well for the Cadets.
Norwich (5-2, 3-1 GNAC) needed just 3:30 to take the lead with Thongsythavong scoring his team-leading sixth goal of the year off a centering feed from Andree Hernandez (Cancun, Mexico). Thongsythavong tucked a shot from the top of the 18 just under the cross bar with Jiana picking up a second assist on the goal after sending Hernandez in on a perfectly-placed through ball.
Mancini scored at the 19:10 mark, finishing off a bouncing ball near the Dean goal line after Nemeye's free-kick service bounced off a Dean defender and was bouncing toward the Dean goal. Mancini raced in and fended off a Bulldog defender for his first goal in a NU uniform.
Jiana scored just 1:01 later with Jiana slicing a shot off the outside of his right foot and into the right corner of the net off a pass from Thongsythavong.
Ramirez capped the first-half scoring in the 41st minute with a goal off assists from Nemeye and Noel Rios (El Paso, Texas).
Dean (2-7, 1-4 GNAC) broke up the shutout bid in the 75th minute with Larry Gbomina heading home a free-kick service from Sean Doherty. Doherty found Gbomina around 12 yards out and Gbomina flicked the ball towards the far right side of the net, up and over NU junior goalkeeper Robert Wagenseller (Poway, Calif.) to make it 4-1.
Wagenseller finished with one save to improve to 5-2 on the season. Bryce Antoch made 12 saves for Dean to take the loss.
Norwich will travel to Regis (Mass.) on Saturday for a 5 p.m. kickoff with the Pride in another GNAC matchup.
