In the penultimate match of the season and last home match the university team beat San Mauro Napoli 10-9
MESSINA – Unime beats San Mauro Napoli in the 17th matchday of group 4 of Serie B 10-9. Coach Misiti’s university team therefore closed their championship at home with a victory, salvation had already been achieved while there would remain a small glimmer of hope for the playoffs to try to seize on the last day which will see captain Giacoppo and his teammates playing away at Scandone in Napoli against Cesport Italia.
Today’s match was very balanced despite San Mauro being last in the group and after the match against Cittadella condemned to relegation. After the first two quarters in which Unime followed closely, Sollima overtook in the third quarter. The match was equal when the last eight minutes began with Mele putting his team back ahead, but on the other side Longo responded definitively, scoring a hat-trick in the final minutes, six goals in total for the player from Etna. Coach Misiti’s team must be acknowledged for having been able to exploit the numerical superiority they had, scoring five times on seven occasions, one of which was played with one pair less each.
At the end of the match we collected the statements of captain Enrico Giacoppo, who also took stock of the season: “San Mauro does not reflect their own ranking, they are last but they are playing on equal terms and with everyone until the last minute. Even in the first leg we won by one and it’s no coincidence, they are a good group, well trained and we expected it would be tough. We can’t say the season is positive, we had the playoffs as our objective and partly due to our own fault, injuries, bad luck we didn’t achieve it but at least we survived with a few days to spare. A rating for the season is a 5, personally I return from Crotone and I was pleased to play here as captain again, obviously I cannot be satisfied with the season because there are no personal objectives, there are team objectives and I hope that we will try again.”
Ranking of group 4 series B: Muri Antichi 38 points, Napoli Lions 37, Cn Salerno 34, Cus Palermo 29, Unime 26, Nuoto 2000 Napoli 22, Cesport Italia 19, Ortigia Academy and Basilicata Nuoto 2000 14, San Mauro Napoli 9. Unime follows three points behind Cus Palermo and has the direct match in their favour, potentially if they were to win away against Cesport and the Palermitans lose at home against Nuoto 2000 Napoli there would be a sensational overtaking on the final day.
Ssd UniMe – San Mauro Napoli 10-9
The guests score on the first action with Esposito, Unime replies by taking advantage of a counterattack and Longo scores his first personal goal of the match. San Mauro gets back ahead thanks to D’Avanzo, then from a few meters away Di Mauro overtakes André face to face. In the last minute Lupeji’s goal in numerical superiority for the momentary equalizer but D’Agostino in turn with the extra man allows the Campania team to end the first half 2-3 ahead.
The back and forth between the two teams continues in the second quarter, Iaccarino for the Campanians, Cusmano for the Sicilians. Then Longo finally scores the lead at 4-4. In the final even balance, first Selcia puts his team ahead in superiority, among the university ranks another goal from Longo, but 22 seconds from the end penalty for San Mauro with Iaccarino scoring the 5-6 midway through the match.
In the third quarter comes the local overtaking, first you win in superiority it makes it 6-6, shortly after a confusing action in the Campania area, the blocked ball wanders dangerously on the line Sollima arrives to push it over the line and score the 7-6. Campania’s reaction with Mele who on the counterattack 13 seconds from the siren puts his team back on equal footing at 7-7.
In the last quarter Mele’s good momentum continued as he scored two more goals, the second valuable from a tight angle with the defense lined up; in the middle a cross from Longo who had attempted a divombolla from over six metres. Down 7-9 and with five minutes to play, the university reaction arrived with Longo scoring three times in superiority, turning the match around in the final minutes, the 10-9 goal arriving 23 seconds from the end. The final rounds of the clock were a bit nervous with the referee showing red cards to Iaccarino for the guests and to D’Angelo and Sollima for the locals. In the final San Mauro did not exploit two numerical superiorities and in the last possession, which was played with the extra man by making the goalkeeper leave the posts, despite having organized the action with a time out they did not reach the goal which could have been worth the draw, great defense by Messina.
Scoreboard
Halftime: 2-3, 3-3, 2-1, 3-2. Superiority: 5/7, 2/9. Penalties: 0/0, 1/1.
Referee: Alessio Musio from Rome.
Ssd Unime: Di Mauro, Sollima 1, Vinci 1, Longo 6, Lupeji 1, Sciabà, Cusmano 1, Giacoppo, Mantineo, Bonansinga, D’Angelo, Milana, Caliri, Sarno.
Coach: Francesco Misiti.
San Mauro: Vettor, Falcone, D’Agostino 1, Carlevalis, Mele 3, Esposito 1, Iaccarino 2, Russo, André, Selcia 1, D’Avanzo 1, Ventura, Balzamo, Sarnataro.
Coach: Christian André.
Featured image by Alessandro D’Angelo
