Penalty Kick Pushes Men’s Soccer Past Framingham State, 2-1

EAST BOSTON – Nigel Leo converted a penalty kick at the 46:10-minute mark to give the Suffolk men's soccer team the lead it held to the rest of the way to take a 2-1 win over Framingham State Wednesday night at James A. Sartori Stadium at East Boston Memorial Park.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 2 | Framingham State 1
RECORDS: Suffolk (3-3-0) | Framingham State (0-6-0)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Framingham State was the first team to strike and did so within the first 20 minutes. Kumphel Sinha uased a feed from Cameron Lau to give the visiting's Rams the 1-0 edge early on.  

The host Rams made a comeback and leveled the playing field with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first set of 45 minutes. Taj Jensen and Miguel Varela coasted down the pitch for a 2-on-1 with Joseph Sturzo. Jensen fired an attempt on frame that Sturzo made a diving save to stop. Varela was there to pick up the pieces from Sturzo's save and easily put the rock into the back of the netting to level the playing field in the 35th minute.  

Even at 1-all, Suffolk wasted little time out of the locker room. The blue-and-gold capitalized on a Framingham State foul inside the box, which set up a penalty kick opportunity for Leo. The graduate transfer went lower left to put the Boston Rams in front, 2-1, less than two minutes into the second stanza. 

Framingham State threatened as the game approached the 75th. Alefe Oliveira lofted a go-ahead pass for Michael Arakelian who was just on side. A Suffolk defender caught up to Arakelian and tackled the ball at just the right time to eliminate the game-tying attempt.  

Suffolk's defense backstopped by Tom Bennett held off a persistence rebuttal from Framingham State to preserve the 2-1 win.  

KEEPING UP WITH THE KEEPERS

• Bennett notched one save in the victory. 
• Sturzo had two saves in the setback.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Leo and Varela were responsible for one goal apiece. 
• Each team had 10 shots. 
• Suffolk put four shots on goal, while FSU had two attempts on target. 
• The Framingham State Rams took six corner kicks compared to the Boston Rams' four.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk snapped a five-game skid against Framingham State to move to 5-5-1 in the all-time series since 2002. 
• The blue-and-gold is now 4-3-0 when playing Framingham State in Boston. 
• Leo has produced a goal in every game that Suffolk has found the back of the net this season. He now has five goals to his credit in six outings. 
• Leo became the first Suffolk student-athlete to convert a PK opportunity since Leonardo Acosta did so at Lasell Oct. 23, 2019. 
• Varela potted his fourth goal of the season. 
• Bennett made his senior season debut in net.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

COMING UP
Suffolk's Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) calendar begins this Saturday, Sept. 18 when Gordon comes to Eastie for a 3:00 p.m. meeting.