MMA Opens NAC Slate with Win Over UMF

Smith scores three goals in the 4-1 victory

Castine, Maine – The Maine Maritime Academy Men’s Soccer team got their North Atlantic Conference schedule started in style, collecting an impressive 4-1 victory over the visiting Beavers from the University of Maine at Farmington on Saturday. Junior Greg Smith (North Yarmouth, ME) scored three goals in the match leading the Mariners to victory.

The 4-1 win over UMF was the first victory for MMA over the Beavers since the 1985 season. The Beavers were 22-0-2 against MMA during the 24-year span.

The Mariners started the scoring on the evening when Smith gathered a pass from Ben Russell (Farmington, ME) and tucked the ball into the right corner of the net. The Beavers answered at the 26-minute mark when Michael Kelly (Norton, MA) got the ball off of a Sean Raph (Fairfield, ME) corner to knot the match at 1-1.

Greg Smith scored the game winner in the 41^st minute on a pass from Nick El-Hajj (Hampden, ME) to put MMA up for good at 2-1.

Just 50 seconds into the second half, MMA striker Nate Tipton (West Chester, PA) scored on a beautiful combination of passes from Nick El-Hajj and Greg Smith to give the Mariners the 3-1 advantage. Smith ended the scoring and collected his first career hat trick when he finished off a corner kick from Dan Hassett (Falmouth, ME).

MMA keeper Jeff Butland got the win for MMA making 9 saves on 25 shots. Paul Dupre (Rehoboth, MA) took the loss for the Beavers making 4 saves on the afternoon. MMA improves to 3-2-1 overall and 1-0 in the NAC while UMF falls to 3-2-0 overall and 0-1 in the NAC.