By John Cataloni // Sept. 20, 2018 //

The Colonels found themselves in a physical, defensive battle on a chilly Wednesday night, that may serve as a prelude of what’s to come as Fall approaches and the second half of their season begins.

The Curry men’s soccer team were able to edge out non-conference Framingham State University at Walter M. Katz Field, 1-0, in a game that saw quite a number of stopped play and whistles.

The first half was played to a 0-0 tie, and the Rams actually out-shot the Colonels 15-7 in the period.

Just 10 minutes into the second half, Curry found their break as freshman Nico Sabbatini launched a missile that found the back of the net, with an assist from junior Brandon Rinaldi.

The Rams had their opportunities as they had six more shots on goal than the Colonels but they could not get through junior goalkeeper Paul DeMaio who posted 11 saves in the winning effort.

Late in the second half, there were frustration fouls for the Rams which resulted in two yellow cards after all the physical play and trash talk.

“Framingham State battled hard, we are pretty evenly matched we just made one more play then they did,” said junior Claudio Orsini. 

Sabbatini made that one more play and now leads the team with three goals on the year. 

“The team gives me the confidence to go out and play and take those shots from deep,” said Sabbatini. 

The impressive freshman hails from Cape Elizabeth, M.E. but is originally from Italy.

“All the freshman have been solid and I feel great moving forward with this team as we move towards our bigger conference games,” said Rinaldi. 

Rinaldi also mentioned that he doesn’t think that there’s one star player on the team.

“Different games different guys will make the big play and we need that. We have a chip on our shoulder being ranked last in the preseason polls but we just beat a good [Framingham] team and I think we are only going to get better moving forward,” added Rinaldi.

The Colonels improve to 6-2-1 halfway through the season while the Rams fall to 4-3-1 after the loss.

Up Next

Curry will continue it’s four-game home stand as it hosts conference foe Wentworth (4-3-1) Saturday, Sept. 22, at 1:30 p.m.