Mello goal carries ‘Cats past Bears

ORONO – University of New Hampshire senior Nick Mello displayed his versatility and goal scoring touch Wednesday afternoon against Maine.

Mello scored with a header off a Tyler Jackson corner kick with 32:40 remaining to give the Wildcats a hard-fought 1-0 win in a mutual America East men’s soccer opener.

UNH is 5-2 overall, while the Black Bears fell to 3-3.

Mello usually plays in the midfield, but he played stopper and sweeper Wednesday to fill in for the ill Matt Shump and injured Brendan Hankard.

He scored his second career goal in two games at Alumni Field 5:10 after sweeper Hankard left the game with a head gash.

“Usually, I hold off for a rebound,” said Mello, whose uncle, John, was a quality player for the Black Bears. “But since Hankard wasn’t in there, and he’s our target man, I played his position on it. I made a run and it hit me in the head.”

Mello was unmarked and his forceful header from 10 yards out cleanly beat Maine goalie Chad Mongeon to the upper near side corner.

UNH had dominated the second half and generated several good chances up to that point only to have Mongeon make some impressive saves.

Maine had the better of the play in the first half, but it wasn’t able to parlay that advantage into good scoring opportunities.

After Mello’s goal, Maine began pressing for the equalizer and generated its best chance with three minutes left.

Falmouth’s Eric Petersen beat a defender, ran on to a Kevin Forgett pass, and tried to flick the ball over oncoming UNH goalie Mike Vignola.

“I came out, closed down the angle, made myself big, and it clipped my right shoulder,” said Vignola.

“He stuck his hand up at the last second. I tried to put it over him into the corner. He made a great save,” said Petersen.

“It was a pretty even game,” said Maine coach Travers Evans. “I was happy with the way the guys played and the effort they put forth. If we play like that all season, we’ll win a lot of games.”

Maine outshot UNH 18-15 and both goalies made six saves.