Kessie's Hat Trick Propels Men's Soccer Over Assumption 4-2
LUDLOW, Mass. (August 30, 2005) –
Freshman Bernard Kessie (Worcester, Mass.) scored
three times in his first collegiate game to lift the American
International College men’s soccer team to a 4-2 victory over
Assumption College at Lusitano Stadium Tuesday afternoon. AIC
is now 1-0-0 overall and in the Northeast-10, while the Greyhounds
drop to 0-1-0 overall and in the league.
Kessie, a graduate of Worcester’s Burncoat High School, notched his first collegiate goal to give the Yellow Jackets a 1-0 lead at the 14:39 mark. He spun past an Assumption defender 30 yards out and went in uncontested and fired a shot past Greyhound keeper Brett Miller (Franklin, Mass.). Richard Speer (Springfield, Mass.), a transfer from Holyoke Community College, assisted on the tally.
The Yellow Jackets took a 2-0 lead just 13 seconds before halftime when Ricky Morris (Victoria, Grenada) took a feed from Akill Jules (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad) and found the back of the net. The Greyhounds responded 3:39 into the second half when Joe Drain (Milton, Mass.) beat Yellow Jacket netminder Michael Murphy (Ithaca, N.Y.) to make it 2-1.
Kessie would notch his second goal of the contest in the 53rd minute when he and Jules found themselves alone with Miller. Jules tapped the ball over to Kessie who fired it home for the Yellow Jackets to reclaim their two-goal advantage. Drain would cut the lead to 3-2 with 6:20 remaining when he scored on an assist from Charlie Donovan (North Andover, Mass.). Kessie added his third goal of the game with 25 seconds left when AIC was awarded a penalty kick, which he converted to complete the hat trick.
Murphy played the first 79:20 in goal for AIC and made one save before giving way to Matt Marcoux (Blackstone, Mass.), who did not make a save over the final 10:40. Miller went the distance for Assumption and made four saves. The Yellow Jackets manufactured a 21-4 shot advantage for the contest.
AIC returns to action Friday night when it hosts
New Haven at Lusitano Stadium in a non-league match. Game
time is 7:30 pm.