Stony Brook, N.Y. - Just as it did on Friday night at St. John's, the Stony Brook University men's soccer team fought valiantly against a Big East opponent, but a hat trick from Andrew Welker proved to be the difference as Seton Hall defeated SBU, 3-2, at LaValle Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Sophomore Wilber Bonilla (Brentwood, N.Y.) and freshman Raphael Abreu (New York, N.Y.) scored for Stony Brook (1-3-1), which held a 17-16 shot differential. Seton Hall is 3-2-0.
A minute after Welker's first goal, the Seawolves had their first scoring chance when a service from junior Greg Tinari (Holbrook, N.Y.) to Abreu was saved by Pirates keeper Paul McHenry, setting up a corner kick.
Redshirt freshman keeper Anthony Rogic (Boonton, N.J.) kept it from being a 2-0 game in the ninth minute, making a diving save to his left on a shot from Dritan Sela.
Welker scored his second and third goals of the first half just two minutes apart. Despite being down 3-0, Stony Brook never went away, and tallied its first goal of the game eight seconds before halftime. On a pass from the back of freshman Leonardo Fernandes' (North Babylon, N.Y.) boot, Bonilla was all alone and blasted a shot from just outside the box into the lower left hand corner, cutting it to a two-goal margin.
Freshman Christian Galindo (Brentwood, N.Y.) created an opportunity early in the second half, dribbling around a defender and serving the ball into the box, but freshman Antonio Crespi's (North Babylon, N.Y.) header was saved. A few minutes later, senior defender Damion Brown (Kingston, Jamaica) had an opportunity but his header went off the right post. Sophomore Kyle McTurk (Hauppauge, N.Y.) got the rebound but his shot went wide.
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After Rogic made a save on a shot from Sela, Stony Brook's next offensive possession almost produced a goal but Abreu's header hit the crossbar and went over the goal.
Sophomore Tom Butler (Birmingham, England), who entered the game in the 79th minute, set up the Seawolves' second goal of the game almost a minute later. Butler made a splendid run down the right side and sent a perfect cross to Abreu who sent it home, cutting what had been a 3-0 lead to just 3-2 with under 10 minutes to play.
Stony Brook had two corner kicks with under three minutes to play but could not find the equalizer.
SBU is on the road for four straight games, beginning with Long Island University on Wednesday at 5 pm
