BROOKLINE, MA - NU defeated the Maine Black Bears 7-2 in an America East conference match Friday night at Parsons Field. Senior midfielder Anders Hoyem had four assists and Petter Starnas and Nate Houghton each added two scores as the Huskies won their third straight game and improved to 7-3 overall on the season and 3-1 in the conference.
It was all NU from the beginning as the Huskies scored two goals before the ten minute mark in the first half and added a third goal less than twenty minutes into the game. Senior forward Petter Starnas put NU on the board for the first time in the match at the 6:10 mark, drilling a shot past diving Maine keeper Matt Cosgriff from 15 yards out. The Huskies struck again a minute later when junior forward Nate Houghton headed in an Anders Hoyem corner kick for a 2-0 lead. Houghton scored his second goal of the night at the 19:50 mark in similar fashion, heading in another cross from Anders Hoyem to put the Huskies up 3-0. NU continued to dominate the time of possession and pound the Maine goal for the remainder of the first half, but were unable to find the net, thus taking a 3-0 lead into halftime.
In the second half, Maine took advantage of an early NU defensive mistake to score its first goal of the match. Husky defender Jay Hanson attepted to head the ball back to goalkeeper Allan Lewis, but misfired and sent the ball past Lewis toward the Husky net. Maine midfielder Justin Woycke converged on the ball and was able to knock it past a sliding Hanson who had attempted to recover from his errant pass and save the ball from crossing the goal line. The Huskies, however, recovered quickly from the blunder and continued their offensive dominance. Ruben Claudio added a goal in the 58th minute off an Antha Kirkopoulos corner kick and Petter Starnas scored his second goal of the game in the 62nd minute on a pass from Hoyem. With the assist, Hoyem moved into first place on the all-time Northeastern career assist list. He finished the night with 30 career assists, surpassing the previous record of 28 held by former Husky Bjorn Hansen. The Norwegian native also assisted on NU's seventh goal of the night in the 74th minute, setting up Ben Collins for the score. Antha Kirkopoulos had scored NU's sixth goal just moments before, netting a direct free-kick from 18 yards out. Maine added a second goal with just under four minutes remaining in the game on a shot from 18 yards out by midfielder Rob Dow.
The Huskies outshot the Black Bears 20-9 in the match. NU keeper Allan Lewis recorded one save in 74 minutes in net while his replacement, Helder Pires, also had one save. Maine's starting goalkeeper Matt Cosgriff recorded one save before leaving with an injury early in the second half. Adam Maciaszczyk recorded three saves in place of the injured Cosgriff.
Scoring
First Half
NU - Petter Starnas (unassisted), 6:10
NU - Nate Houghton (Anders Hoyem), 7:43
NU - Nate Houghton (Anders Hoyem), 19:50
Second Half
UM - Justin Woycke (unassisted), 50:45
NU - Ruben Claudio (Antha Kirkopoulos), 53:15
NU - Petter Starnas (Anders Hoyem), 62:22
NU - Antha Kirkopoulos (unassisted), 67:46
NU - Ben Collins (Anders Hoyem), 74:59
UM - Rob Dow (unassisted), 86:19
Shots
Northeastern, 20
Maine, 9
Corner Kicks
Northeastern, 8
Maine, 2
Fouls
Northeastern, 13
Maine, 8
Offsides
Northeastern, 2
Maine, 1
Saves
Northeastern, Allan Lewis 1, Helder Pires 1
Maine, Matt Cosgriff 1, Adam Maciaszczyk 3
