Box Score

BRISTOL, R.I. – First-year Ryan Nunn (Old Lyme, Conn.) scored 7:24 into overtime to lift the Nichols College men's soccer team to a 2-1 win over Roger Williams in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Semifinals Thursday afternoon. The win sends the Bison to the conference championship game for the fourth time in five years.

Nichols avenged a 1-0 loss to the Hawks back on September 22 with the win and improved to 13-7-0 on the year and will travel back to Rhode Island on Saturday to face second-seeded Salve Regina, who earlier defeated sixth-seeded Gordon 2-1. Roger Williams falls to 15-5-0 on the year.

In the extra session, senior Scott Coderre (Thompson, Conn.) broke in 2-on-1 with Nunn and fed the freshman, whose shot found the lower right corner.

”It was all Scott (Coderre),” said Nunn. “He had a 1-v-1 with the defender, then a 1-v-1 with the goalie and made a completely unselfish play passing it off to me for the finish. I played a lot of defense earlier in my career, so this is my first big goal.”

“We went with two forwards up top in overtime, and it made a difference,” added Coderre. “(Michael) Perry played a great ball out of the back that was misplayed, and I got a breakaway and Nunn made a great play to finish it. It's a great win.”

The Bison defense held serve in the first half, keeping the Hawks off the board with timely play. Nichols rookie keeper Alex Geas (Somers, Conn.) denied a one-on-one opportunity by Hawk junior forward Daniel Caruso (Tewksbury, Mass.), making a kick save on his shot in the fourth minute.

Roger Williams had chances in the period to take the lead. Freshman James Sheldon (Amherst, N.H.) had his shot saved by Geas and cleared by Patrick DeRosa (Bristol, Conn.) in the 33rd minute. Senior Kamali Webson (Bellingham, Mass.) headed a pass into the box that sailed just wide with under five minutes to play in the frame.

Nichols capitalized at the 37:46 mark, when junior Fred Willard (Webster, Mass.) made a pass to Coderre inside the box, just staying onsides, and putting one into net to give the Bison a 1-0 lead. The goal pushed Coderre into second place on the all-time goal scoring list with his 37th career tally and finished the match with 93 career points to surpass Donn Norton '99 for third place in the all-time scoring column.

Playing a man down because of a red card infraction for the entire second half and overtime, Nichols led 1-0 until the Hawks tied the score with 1:15 to go in regulation. Seconds later, Geas stopped a penalty shot to send the game to OT.

The hosts had quality chances in the second half as senior Bradley MacDonald (Topsfield, Mass.) sent a header just wide right in the 63rd minute that would've tied the game. In the 75th minute, Sheldon fired a shot that was deflected and slowly headed for the net before sophomore Phil Mitto (Windsor, Conn.) tracked it down and cleared it out before the ball scored.

Junior Trevor Hoxsie (Scarborough, Maine) came through with the equalizer with 1:24 to play in the game, knocking in a pass from Macdonald in the middle of the box to tie the contest.

Geas made nine saves on the day in the win, while Hawk junior keeper Jon Pelloso (Wilbraham, Mass.) made seven saves for Roger Williams.

“I couldn't have asked for anything more from our players,” commented head coach Chris Traina. “They kept the game plan together and didn't get away from it. We had to play a man down and also suffered some injuries, so we made some adjustments. I could not be prouder. I've been at Nichols 10 years, and moments like this are indescribable. Roger Williams is a great team. As soon as we were down a man, we were pressured the entire time and they eventually knocked one in. Alex (Geas) just returned from injury and played outstanding for us. He made a huge save on a penalty shot to send the game to overtime, and then we had a world-class finish to wrap it up.”

Contributions from Roger Williams Sports Information