HomeSPORTSSOCCERMen's Soccer Fall Short to Warriors in Season Opener

Men’s Soccer Fall Short to Warriors in Season Opener

By MICHAEL SMITH
Contributing Writer

Published September 7, 2011

On Friday afternoon, men’s soccer took on the Nyack Warriors in the first game of the Saint Rose Tournament. This was the first game of the season for the Knights.

Saint Rose soccer player Patrik Ohlsson
Patrik Ohlsson /Tom Killips

The Golden Knights came out a little slow at first, but Senior goalkeeper Patrik Ohlsson kept the game scoreless with some stellar saves early on in the first half.

Though the Golden Knights had a little trouble pushing the ball down the field, their defense played fairly well. After allowing a couple of good shots against Ohlsson, they seemed to be settling in.

Midway through the first half, the Golden Knights made their first substitutions, bringing in two freshmen, midfielder Steven Anderson and forward Jeff Kozlowski.

These two seemed to bring a new tempo into the game. The entire Knights team seemed to have a new energy, no longer were they being out run, and they constantly fought for the ball on every possession.

Saint Rose had a couple of scoring chances towards the end of the first half, but failed to really get anything consistently going. They only managed to get two shots off with neither one being on goal.

The story of this game would prove to be the officiating. With just over three minutes into the second half, Paxton Ballard, a sophomore back for the Golden Knights, received his first yellow card, the fourth booking of the night for the Golden Knights.

Just two minutes later, Ballard tripped a Nyack forward on a breakaway, which led to an automatic red card, giving Ballard an ejection.  This proved to be costly as Nyack Junior midfielder, Marco Likos, put his free kick opportunity into the net.

At this point, the Golden Knights were playing at a disadvantage with a man down, but watching the game it didn’t seem that way.

Nyack Loss
Game vs. Nyack /Tom Killips

With just over 26 minutes left, Saint Rose had a corner kick that led to a beautiful crossing pass to setup a great scoring opportunity. Unfortunately, an incredible save from Nyack’s Senior goalkeeper Adrian Ibanez kept the Golden Knights off the board.

Ibanez was truly phenomenal in the second half. All four of the Golden Knights’ shots on goal came in the second half and all four came on very good scoring chances.

With about 1:30 left in the game, Saint Rose matriculated the ball down the field and worked to kick a ball off the side post, in heartbreaking fashion. This would be the last scoring chance the Golden Knights would have, giving Nyack a 1-0 win.

Even though they lost, head coach Matt Jones was pleased with his team’s performance playing a man down for most of the game.

“I’m proud of the way we generated scoring chances a man down,” said Jones. “We fought through adversity to give ourselves a chance.”

Ohlsson was also pleased with the defense that played in front of him. “We played solid D today, especially when we were playing a man down,” said Ohlsson.

The Knights took on Mercy to wrap up the Saint Rose tournament last Saturday. “We really haven’t had a chance to scout,” said Jones.

With the quick turnaround, the game scheduled less than 24 hours after the completion of Friday’s, Jones said he only wanted his Knights, “to go out and play well.”

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