With star striker Alec Hughes out of the lineup for the Massachusetts men’s soccer team due to an injury, UMass (5-2-3, 1-1-0 Atlantic-10) had to look elsewhere for offensive production in its 2-2 draw against Vermont on Tuesday.
In the Minutemen’s previous game with Hughes leaving the match early, they secured a stunning 3-2 come-from-behind win over Fordham off goals from Alex Brown and substitutes Johan Feilscher and Oliver Akintade. Coming into the game against Fordham, Hughes accounted for over half of UMass’ goal scoring, with 10 of 19 goals.
On Tuesday, the Minutemen compensated for the missing goals from the NCAA leading goal scorer Hughes with a strong performance from Andrew Ortiz, who scored two goals in the first half that gave UMass an early lead and ultimately helped the team come away with a hard-fought draw against the Catamounts (4-1-4, 0-0-1 America East).
Ortiz struck first for the Minutemen in the 16th minute, collecting a pass from Matt Cence and sneaking in a goal between the Vermont goalkeeper and the left post. That opening goal marked the first goal for Ortiz this season. Cence set up Ortiz for the goal after getting a pass from Ivan Vrh before quickly laying it off to the cutting Ortiz.
The senior midfielder from Longmeadow, Mass. doesn’t typically do the scoring, but he stepped up in a big way on the offensive side on Tuesday. In 2022 and 2023, Ortiz had two goals for the whole season, and in 2021 he had just one lone goal. For Ortiz, it was a career night in Burlington, recording a career-high in goals scored with his brace when the Minutemen desperately needed the offensive firepower with Hughes’ absence.
In the 37th minute, Ortiz struck again for his second goal, bouncing the ball off his chest and putting it into the left corner of the net just past Catamounts’ goalkeeper Niklas Herceg. The goal for Ortiz came off a pass from Aidan Kelly who received it via Brad Moccio outside the box, setting up Ortiz in a dangerous position at the top of the box right of the center for his second goal of the night.
With Hughes still potentially out of the lineup as UMass resumes conference play on Saturday, the Minutemen can look to a senior leader like Ortiz to help fuel the offense. Ortiz has been more aggressive as of late, totaling six shots in the past three games after going the first seven games of the season with three shots attempted in total. Against George Mason, he tied his career high of three shots attempted in a game.
Ortiz can also be a facilitator to look out for, he already has two assists this season in games at Yale and Dartmouth. In the 2022 season, he showed some passing chops when he posted three assists throughout the season. Ortiz can look to eclipse his previous career-best season totals of two goals and three assists in UMass’ seven remaining games, especially if Hughes is out for more games going forward.
The Minutemen return to action on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 1 p.m. to take on Saint Joseph’s at Rudd Field.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
