BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Northampton men's soccer team clinched the EPAC championship on Thursday afternooon, downing Bucks County Community College 3-2 , in a thrilling match at Spartan Field.
In a battle of the top two teams in the EPAC,
Armando Gonzalez (Bath, PA/Nazareth) got Northampton on the board 9 minutes into the game off an assist from
Cesar Hernandez (East Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg). Hernandez followed up 5 minutes later with his own goal, assisted by
Sam Gaye (Bath, PA/Northampton ), giving the Spartans a 2-0 halftime advantage.
The Centurions clawed back in the second half, as Howard Haas knocked in a rebound with 25 minutes to play and Tyler Andre tied the contest 6 minutes later. The teams battled back and forth before Gonzalez got loose and was taken down in the box, resulting in a penalty kick for Northampton.
Joey Jacona (East Stroudsburg, PA/East Stroudsburg South ) calmly put the ball in the back of the net, in what proved to be the game winner with 15 minutes remaining in the game.
Kenan Meral (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty ) made 9 saves, including a couple huge saves down the stretch, culminating with a deflection on a direct kick on the game's final play.
"Just a terrfic effort," commented Head Coach
Brennan McCarthy, "once again we had guys (
Junior Moncayo (Easton, PA/Easton ),
Majed Salama (Allentown, PA/Catasauqua )) step up to fill in for our missing starters and they each did a tremendous job.
Sam Gaye (Bath, PA/Northampton ) did a great job moving back to defense, along with
Matt McCoy (Upper Mt. Bethel /Bangor ) and
David Chirco (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg ) ... they really were unsung heros today."
The win moves Northampton to 11-0-0 in EPAC play, while second place Bucks falls to 8-2-0. The Spartans only have one conference game remaining on October 18th vs. Harrisburg, thus guaranteeing them the conference title.
The Spartans (11-2-0 overall) host Middlesex at 2:30pm on Saturday in a women's/men's doubleheader.