Morin, O’Connell keep scoring as Bates hands Plymouth St. its 2nd loss
LEWISTON, Maine — All season long, they’ve been the yin and yang of the Bates College men’s soccer team’s offense. Never was that clearer than in Wednesday’s non-league game between Bates and visiting Plymouth State University.
Sophomore Brent Morin (Hanover, N.H.) scored his first collegiate hat trick and added an assist, and senior Terence O’Connell (Greenwich, Conn.) kept pace with his teammate by scoring a goal to go with one assist as Bates, rated 10th in New England in the latest poll, handed Plymouth State, rated seventh, its second loss of the season, 4-2.
While O’Connell’s goal gave Bates a 1-0 lead and pushed his New England Small College Athletic Conference-leading total to 10 goals on the season, Morin’s three subsequent scores allowed him to tie his teammate atop the scoring list. To Morin, nothing could be better.
“Terence and I have been kind of feeding off each other all year,” Morin said. “It was cool that I assisted him on his first goal, and then he fed me on my last one.”
Bates led 2-0 at the half, as O’Connell easily poked in Morin’s setup in the 28th minute, and in the 43rd minute Morin just as easily finished a play led off by midfielder David Shear’s (Concord, Mass.) pickoff of a Plymouth State pass, and his subsequent pass to assist man Patrick Grater (Mystic, Conn.)
Plymouth State (9-2-3) got on the board 14 minutes into the second half, with Semir Mehmedovic feeding Alex Marin. But less than two minutes later, Bates had responded with two Morin goals. The first was set up by Ithai Schori’s (New York, N.Y.) seeing-eye through ball and Morin’s juke move around Plymouth State goalie Tyler Shute. The second, Morin’s third of the day, came via O’Connell’s through ball which quickly found Morin on a breakaway.
Seconds after a mass substitution by Bates with less than 12 minutes left to play, Plymouth State scored again, with Marin assisting Justin Flanagan on a breakaway and Flanagan beating newly inserted substitute goalie Rob Munro (Walpole, Mass.).
Bates (8-2-2, 3-2-2) hosts Middlebury Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Bobcats’ final home game.
SCORING:
B – Terence O’Connell (Brent Morin), 17:50
B – Morin (Patrick Grater), 42:49
P – Alex Marin (Semir Mehmedovic), 58:10
B – Morin (Ithai Schori), 59:06
B – Morin (O’Connell), 59:54
P – Justin Flanagan (Marin)
GOALIE SAVES: Bates 5 (Aaron Schleicher 78:27, 1 GA, Rob Munro 11:33, 1 GA), Plymouth State 4 (Tyler Shute 90:00, 4 GA)
CORNER KICKS: Plymouth State 3, Bates 4
SHOTS: Plymouth State 9, Bates 12
FOULS: Plymouth State 14, Bates 15