Box Score WENHAM, Mass.—Junior Aaron Terjanian scored two acrobatic goals to lead the unranked Gordon College men's soccer team to a 3-1 upset win over No. 24 Eastern Connecticut State University Tuesday afternoon at the Quad., handing the Warriors their first loss of the year after six wins
The Fighting Scots run their win streak to three games and hold an overall record of 5-2, while the Warriors drop their first contest of the season after six wins and a tie. Eastern is ranked No. 4 in New England. Until Tuesday, Eastern had gone 26 straight matches without losing by more than a single goal.
Gordon controlled the momentum throughout the first half and kept the Warriors back end busy from the very start. The Scots put five shots near the Eastern Connecticut goal over the opening 10 minutes, including a header off the crossbar by freshman Tyler Modzeleski. Warriors' keeper Ryan Murphy (Cromwell) also made a few fingertip saves to keep Gordon out of the net in the early going.
The Fighting Scots finally broke through for the first tally of the game on Caleb Cole's header in the 21st minute. Freshman defender Collin Surface put a ball over the top of the defense from the left corner and found the forehead of Cole for the score—Cole's fourth of the season.
Gordon continued to press late into the first period, but a few close calls yielded nothing on the scoreboard. One last push with time dwindling on the clock gave Torrey Stricklin a long throw in from just in front of the Gordon bench. The senior tossed it to Terjanian, who was able to shimmy around his defender and send it arching over the approaching Murphy for the two-goal advantage.
The Plaid looked hungry for more in the second half when Eastern quick-countered. The Warriors took advantage of Gordon not getting back on defense quickly and Tyler Jones (Vernon) made them pay. A looping pass from Danny Manfredi (Unionville) found Jones in stride down the left side. The attackman took one touch and launched ball over the head of Josh Spoonhour to curb Gordon's momentum temporarily for his third goal of the season, all coming in the last two matches.
Eastern had two great looks at evening the game over the next five minutes, but Gordon was able to balance itself back out.
Terjanian closed out any thoughts of a comeback with a strike in the 86th minute. The forward was able to get his leg around the shield of his defender and poke it over Murphy, who had come up to collect the bounding ball.
Murphy made 15 saves, Spoonhour seven.
Eastern hosts Western Connecticut State University Saturday at 1 p.m. in a Little East Conference match.
