The New England College Pilgrims hosted the Lyndon State Hornets under the lights at Don Melander Field, Monday September 24th, in Henniker.
This will be the only meeting between the two teams this season. The Hornets entered the night with a record of 1-6, and the Pilgrims came in with a record of 3-3-1. The Pilgrims looked to bounce back from a 2-1 upset by an 0-6 Elms College.
Junior defender, Luis Mandujano, from Norwalk, Connecticut, said his team’s approach to the game was different than prior season games. “I knew that we wanted to make up for the loss against Elms College so as a team we had a different mentality approaching the game.”
To start and for most of the game, the ball remained in Hornets territory. The Pilgrims struck first with a penalty kick by Cooper Valinski 20 minutes into the game. Nine minutes later, Kyle Clements shook the goalie off balance and set up a nice assist to Owen Lloyd, for the second goal of the game.
The Grims had a comfortable lead against the Hornets, and did not want to settle for a 2-0 victory. They went on to finish the second half with one more goal. At the 36:12 mark, Badran Saeed broke loose after taking a pass from Tucker Valinski, and struck a firm ball into the net. The Pilgrims led 3-0 at the half.
At the halftime, Mandjuano, was asked how he felt about taking a 3-0 lead into the second half. “I was excited that we scored 3 goals in one half and I was also confident that we could finish them off going into the second half”. The Hornets would need to start playing harder if they wanted to show any type of life to comeback in the game.
The second half opened up, and in the 57th minute, Cooper Valinski captured his second goal of the night, and 6th goal of the season. Owen Lloyd delivered a pass that allowed him to send a rocket past the Hornets goaltender. The Pilgrims were leading 4-0 up until the 76th minute, when the Hornets snuck a ball inside the left post that gave them their first goal of the night. Unfortunately for Lyndon State they were not able to figure out the Pilgrims and lost 4-1. The game was clearly dominated by the Pilgrims, out shooting the Hornets 40 to 8.
“I felt like it was a great confidence booster going into Babson,” said Madujano. “Well I know that Babson has a good program and it will be a challenge for my team”.
The Pilgrims know they are going up against a challenge, and according to their junior defenseman, they are ready.
