Parakilas Nets Four Goals, Owls Surge Past Rams 5-4

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State forward Nick Parakilas (Broad Brook, Conn.) increased his conference-leading goal total by scoring four times to lead the Owls past Framingham State 5-4 in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference match on the road Saturday afternoon.

The Owls pass multiple teams in the standings and now sit in third place with the victory, advancing to 3-1-2 in the MASCAC and 7-3-4 on the season. The Rams fall to 5-8-2 overall and 2-4 in the conference.

Parakilas got the scoring started just 2:24 into the contest, beginning with Charlie Anischik (South Hadley, Mass.) who launched a deep ball out and ahead of Dylan Wesley (Agawam, Mass.) who collected the ball and centered a pass to Parakilas who settled the feed and ripped a low shot past Colin Holt (Belchertown, Mass.) for a 1-0 lead.

Westfield would fall behind midway through the first half after a pair of Rams goals within seven minutes of each other. Kaio Santos Da Silva (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) scored the go-ahead marker after dishing a pass to Landon Medeiros (Fall River, Mass.) to set up Framingham's first goal.

Framingham would hold on to the lead for 1:32 of game action before the Owls quickly found the equalizer with Wesley catching the Rams off guard by swiftly stepping into a free kick from 20 yards out that sailed into the upper lefthand corner of the net with 23:18 remaining in the half.

The match went into halftime tied at two before Parakilas shouldered the scoring load in the final 45. A little over four minutes into the period, Paul Whalley (Southwick, Mass.) delivered a beautiful through ball to Parakilas who then laced a low shot past the diving Holt and into the goal to regain the lead.

Another terrific pass up field led to Parakilas' third of the match to double the lead. Enzo Mazza (East Longmeadow, Mass.) served a 40-yard pass towards the front of the box where Parakilas was able to spin past a Rams defender and rocket a shot, while falling to the turf, into the right side of the net with 33:25 to play.

Da Silva fought to keep Framingham within striking distance, scoring in the 65^th minute to trim the deficit to one. However, Parakilas was able to answer with his conference-leading 18^th goal of the season, directing a header to the far post and into the net. Mazza picked up his second assist of the match, lofting a free kick from 40 yards into the front of the box.

The scoring would not end there as Da Silva picked up a hat trick 1:19 after the Parakilas goal. Da Silva finished with three goals and an assist.

The Rams had a pair of corner kick attempts with under five remaining but both shots were wide of the net, ending the match with an Owls win.

Westfield held a 19-13 shots advantage over Framingham. Luke Theroux (Chicopee, Mass.) made four saves for his third win of the season. Holt made five stops for the Rams. The Owls have scored five or more goals four times this season.

Westfield State has just two matches left in the regular season with their next game coming on Homecoming Weekend on Saturday, October 25 at 11:00 A.M. versus Anna Maria from Alumni Field in Westfield, Mass.