Owls Raid Rivier, 4-0

WESTFIELD, Mass.  --     Carter Hebert  (Easthampton, Mass.) and Nick Parakilas (Broad Brook, Conn./ East Windsor HS) each scored a pair of goals as Westfield State broke open a close match late to defeat Rivier, 4-0, in a non-conference men's soccer match at Alumni Field on Wednesday evening.

Westfield moves to 4-1 overall on the season, while Rivier is 0-3-3.

Parakilas wasted little time in getting Westfield State on the board first, as Sonny Mazza (E. Longmeadow, Mass.) drove the ball to the byline on the left side, and fed the ball back to for Parakilas to hammer home for the goal and a 1-0 lead in the 12^th minute.

The game hung at 1-0 for the next 65 minutes.

Parakilas whistled a shot over the crossbar in the first minute of the second half, and despite consistent offensive pressure, Westfield could not get an insurance goal, sending a handful of shots just wide in the early stages of the second half.

Westfield finally got their second goal in the 78^th minute with good build up, with Ethan Margolis (Wakefield, Mass.) sending a pass ahead to Sonny Mazza, who flicked it on for Parakilas, who was in clean on the left hand side, and beat Rivier keeper Lucas Sedas (Mexico City, Mexico) to the far post, where Hebert finalized the goal with a tap in for a 2-0 Owls lead.

The floodgates opened from there, as Parakilas got his second of the match with a feed from Mazza after he stole the ball near midfield in the 83^rd minute, and Hebert added his second goal in the 84^th minute off of an assist from Aidan Ferguson (Augsburg, Germany/Douglas) for the 4-0 final.

Rivier's best scoring chance came in the 78^th minute, as Mitchell Ward (Fillmore, NY) rang a header off the cross bar on a set piece.

Westfield's Marko Kononenko (Kyiv, Ukraine/Monument Mountain HS) made five saves to earn his second shutout of the season.  Sedas finished with seven saves for the Raiders.

Westfield will next travel to Salem State for a key MASCAC conference game on Saturday, with a 1:00 p.m. kickoff.

Westfield defeated Salem twice last season, including a 2-0 win in the MASCAC Championship game at Alumni Field last November.   Salem was picked to win the league title in this season's preseason poll, while the Owls were picked to finish third in the conference.