By KAITLYN JASNICA
Contributing Writer
PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 6, 2011
The Golden Knights men’s soccer team fell to the Le Moyne Dolphins 2-0 on Wednesday night. This loss gave Le Moyne its first point in the Upstate Challenge, an athletic competition between Le Moyne and Saint Rose.
The Golden Knights controlled the majority of the play for the first portion of the first half. In the eighth minute of play, captain Liam Barrett sent in a corner kick that freshman Steven Anderson redirected towards the net. However, Le Moyne’s goalkeeper Matthew Silva made a great save keeping the game scoreless.
Shortly after the missed goal, players on both teams started getting more aggressive. For the remainder of the first half, there were 10 fouls (7 against Saint Rose, 3 against Le Moyne). Le Moyne scored its first goal of the game 35 minutes into play when midfielder Jesse Carr ripped a shot from 25 yards that found the bottom corner of the net. Sophomore Jacob Sand ended up having the only shot for Saint Rose in the remainder of the half but missed it wide. The first yellow card was issued to Le Moyne ‘s Perry Clark with less than three minutes to go in the period.
In the second half, the emotions picked up even more. However, the intensity of the Golden Knights could not stop the Dolphins. Golden Knight sophomore Stephen Richardson was making an offensive move towards the net when he was tripped. The referee let the call go despite the audience’s disapproval. Less than one minute later, Dolphin Casey Murphy passed the ball through the defense to midfielder Zachary McNabb who scored by shooting the ball near the post.
Saint Rose had many good chances to score throughout the game, but could not get the ball past the Le Moyne keeper. The score ended 2-0, Le Moyne winning. The Golden Knights are now 0-7 in Northeast-10 Conference play, while the Dolphins advance to 5-2.
“I thought we put a good effort in. I thought we played well at times but we didn’t take care of the couple of chances we had…Our guys were up for the match and played really well at the beginning and I think that was due to the Upstate Challenge and the fan support,” said first-year coach Matt Jones.
The Le Moyne’s men’s soccer team was the first to pull out a victory against Saint Rose in the Upstate Challenge. Saint Rose is currently winning the challenge 3-1. In September, the men’s golf team pulled out a victory against the Dolphins and women’ s soccer annihilated Le Moyne 8-0. This past Tuesday, women’s volleyball beat the Dolphins easily 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-17).
Both teams played intensely throughout the match to win the game and a point for their school. 15 fouls were called on the Golden Knights and 13 were called on the Dolphins. Both teams were given two yellow cards. Towards the end of the game, many people in the crowd of 497 thought that there was going to be a fight.
“We were coming out of a victory and they were coming out of a lapse. So when you put two intense teams together it’ll end up with a game like that,” said Barrett.
The next mens soccer home game is October 15 at 1 p.m. against Bentley. It will be played at the Plumeri Sports. Shuttle buses will be provided an hour prior to the start of the game.
In the Upstate Challenge, whichever school wins the majority of the 14 games will get to raise the first Upstate Challenge Trophy. The Golden Knights still lead in the Upstate Challenge 3-1. The next home game for the Upstate Challenge is for men’s and women’s swimming, November 19th started at 1:30 p.m. at the Robison Pool at RPI. Come support the Golden Knights to another victory.
Great article Kaitlyn!