Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass.-  Sophomore Patrick DeRosa (Lynnfield, Mass.) and freshman David Melanson (Simsbury, Conn.) each scored their first collegiate goal to lift the Nichols College men's soccer team to a 3-1 win over defending Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Champion Salve Regina University Saturday afternoon at the Nichols Soccer Field.

Junior Jeremy Nash (West Springfield, Mass.) made four saves for the Bison (9-1-4) to pick up his eighth win of the season.   

The Seahawks had the first great opportunity at 28:00 when junior forward Alex Wasilewski (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) took a shot in the open eight yards out and clanked it off the cross bar.

The Bison got things rolling towards the end of the first half when junior Michael Perry (Plainville, Mass.) took a free kick and passed it in the middle to DeRosa,who shot it from way outside the goal box and over sophomore goalie Daniel Stern's (Kings Park, N.Y.) outstretched fingers into the back of the net. 

Nichols led Salve Regina 1-0 at the half.

Seven minutes into the second half, senior forward Scott Palmerino (Southbridge, Mass.) threw it deep into the box to sophomore Tiago Prazeres (West Hartford, Conn.), who then faked the defender one way, turned and fired a kick into the backside of the goal.

In the 76th minute, Melanson fought off the defender outside the goal box and beat the keeper on the left side to score his first collegiate goal and make the score 3-0 Bison.

The shutout remained intact until 88:28 when sophomore Alvaro Castillo (Tegucigalpa M.D.C., Honduras) took the corner kick from junior Devin L'Heureux (Litchfield, N.H.) and kicked a dribbler past the diving Nash and into the back right of the net.

"Salve Regina is a very good technical team, and we wanted to push pressure on them to see how they would respond to it, "said head coach Chris Traina.  "There is always risk to it, but it seemed to pay off."

The Bison travel to play conference rival Endicott on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. Salve Regina travels to Western New England to play a conference match on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.

"We have got to come out and play a full 90 minutes against Endicott who is a very good and physical team," said Traina.