SAUGUS — The Winthrop Vikings traveled to Saugus to take on the Sachems where they struck early, but left Saugus with a 3-1 loss. 

An early goal by Winthrop was its first and last of the day as Saugus scored three unanswered goals in the second half to win at home, 3-1.

The Vikings first goal was scored by Sebastian Yepez putting one in from a corner kick from teammate Fabiano Alcala Rodrigues. 

At halftime, Winthrop had a 1-0 lead with Saugus struggling to get anything going on the offensive end. 

The Sachems made adjustments at the break and answered immediately. 

In the first five minutes of the second half, captain Noah Giron shot a laser that saw the back of the net to tie the game up at one apiece. 

After that, all of the momentum was with Saugus. Then it was captain Abraham Costa taking it upon himself to find the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1.

Costa wasn’t done there as he found another past the Vikings goalie to protect home field and leave with the win. 

Goalkeeper Massimo Paglioco made several saves to keep Saugus out front, including an acrobatic save to preserve the win.

“We started off really slow, really slow. We always start off slow, after not practicing or doing anything soccer for two days. A lot of these kids have jobs and they work and they need their free time, they needed to get scored on first to wake up,” Saugus head coach Guillermo Sepulveda said. “Our captain Abraham Costa has never scored two goals in one game. He was a passionate player today and that’s the best Abraham when he’s passionate about what he’s doing and everyone rises up to his level.”  

Sepulveda needed his team to come out better in the second half and they delivered.

“The message at halftime was that we needed to win because there are some tough teams ahead of us and we need to win them and to stay at that 50% [record] so we can make the playoffs,” Sepulveda said. “The playoffs is our number one goal and no one wants to go home on the 30th after we play Peabody whether we win or lose that game.”

Saugus will look to build off this comeback home win and use it as a step in the right direction.

The Sachems are back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Gloucester to take on the Fishermen.

Owen Finn is a student at Endicott College studying journalism