The men’s soccer team managed to stay undefeated at home this season after a win against Robert Morris and a tie versus St. Francis of Pennsylvania. The team currently sits 9-3-3 overall with a 4-1-2 record in the Northeast Conference.
On Friday night, MU played host to Robert Morris and took control early. In the 9th minute, Ryan Clark sent a free kick into the box where Tomas Penfold flicked his head toward the goalkeeper and the ball found the back left corner of the net.
In the second half, the Hawks kept up the pressure and tallied another goal in the 52nd minute to take a commanding 2-0 lead. Francois “Paco” Navarro made a move into the box and shot the ball low and hard. The shot was saved and the rebound fell right to midfielder Joseph Schmid who scored his third goal in the past four games.
“The last couple of games I’ve been in a more forward role, so naturally I’m going to be more up the field to make more offensive plays,” said Schmid. “Whatever the team needs me to do, I’ll do it.”
The lead was trimmed to 2-1 when Robert Morris scored on a free kick just outside the 18 yard goalie box. The shot avoided the wall of white shirts for MU and found the bottom right corner of the net just beyond the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Alex Blackburn. Minutes later, with Robert Morris threatening on a one-on-one, Blackburn was able to make a kick save to preserve the lead. The Hawks would go on to win 2-1. Blackburn finished the game with four saves.
“I thought it was a great win, Robert Morris is actually one of the better soccer playing teams that we saw all year, so it was good to get a result against them,” said head coach Robert McCourt. “I thought the guys played really well, the possession was really sharp and we created a lot of chances; I thought we deserved to win.”
“Three points in the conference is three points in the conference; any game that you get in the conference you hope to get a win, a tie is okay, and you hope not to get a loss,” McCourt said.
MU was back in action Sunday afternoon looking for their fifth straight win when Saint Francis (Pa.) came to town. Chances came early for the Hawks, who finished the game with 15 shots and 8 corner kicks. After two overtimes, and 110 minutes, the game ended in a scoreless tie. Alex Blackburn made one save and recorded his seventh clean sheet of the season.
“I thought from top to bottom we were better in every aspect of the game, but sometimes soccer can be cruel and the soccer gods don’t smile on you all the time,” said McCourt. “I thought we did everything right except finish a chance. All we needed was to finish one chance.”
Winning four straight before the tie, MU was seeing many different faces contributing and producing. Nine different players have scored for the Hawks this year, and six players have scored multiple times.
“It’s nice to get a balanced attack because then teams can’t focus in on just one player,” said McCourt. “I feel like it’s hard for teams. We’ve changed our lineup around a lot, we have a lot of interchangeable guys.”
The Hawks have three games left on the schedule, and one home game remaining. Currently sitting second in the Northeast Conference, MU is looking to finish the season strong and wind up on top of the conference when the regular season comes to a close.
“I think we’re in great position,” said Schmid. “We have 14 points right now, we got three games to play so we have nine more points to win the conference which I think is very do-able. I think 23 points should be good enough to win the conference and we have three winnable games.”
MU is back on the pitch Friday, October 26, when they travel to St. Francis (N.Y.) for a 7 pm match.