The men’s soccer team came away with a “disappointing” 1-1 tie when they played the University of Albany Great Danes on the Great Lawn on Friday, September 20. The Hawks dominated time of possession, as well as shots on goal, but could not capitalize enough to come away with a victory.
“It’s very disappointing,” said head coach Robert McCourt. “I thought we really dominated the game and created a lot of scoring chances, but we just weren’t good enough in the final third to put the game away.”
As the first half began, the Hawks wasted no time trying and get the scoring started. With just about five minutes gone from the clock, MU freshman forward, Dave Nigro, gave a pass to senior forward, Francois “Paco” Navarro, that led him into the box. Navarro tried to cross the ball to a teammate, but an Albany defender was able to deflect the cross and clear it out of harm’s way.
Only a few moments later, in the 11th minute of play, the Hawks put more pressure on the Great Danes defense. Captain and senior midfielder, Joseph Schmid, started the attack when he stole possession from an Albany defender just outside the 16 yard line. Schmid sent a pass through the box that was knocked away by a Great Dane defender.
After the deflection MU junior defender, Derek Luke, was able to gain possession back for his team. Luke put another ball close to the net, but again, an Albany player deflected the ball and cleared it out of immediate danger.
The Hawks had another opportuninty chance to score in the 38th minute when Schmid gave a skillful lead pass to senior forward, Jacob Rubinstein. Rubinstein controlled the ball in the box, but the Albany back made a nice play with a slide tackle to dismiss the opportunity.
MU controlled the ball for the majority of the first half and as a result, the Great Danes had no real scoring threats through the first 45 minutes.
“We need to finish those opportunities,” said McCourt, when asked about his team’s numerous scoring chances. “We’re very good in terms of keeping the ball and possessing it, but we have to get better at finishing.”
The theme of the game continued as the second half began and the Hawks took control of the ball and went right back on the attack. With only three minutes into the half, Schmid again led Navarro with a pass in the box. This time, Navarro was able to get a good look at the net as he rocketed a shot towards the top of the frame. The opportunity was stopped when Albany goalkeeper, Tim Allen, blocked the shot and his defender cleared the ball.
After continuing to hold possession, MU was finally able to breakthrough in the 73th minute. With a series of deflections, Nigro gained possession just inside the box and ripped a low shot past Allen to give Monmouth a 1-0 lead.
The goal seemed to awaken the Great Danes and for the rest of the half, ball possession seemed to even out with Albany finally gaining a little momentum.
In the 87th minute, the Great Danes built on this momentum when Albany forward, Philip Persson was on the receiving end of a cross from midfielder Kit Alexieff and headed the ball just over the outstretched arms of a leaping MU junior goaltender, Stephen Graziani to tie the score at 1-1, sending the game into overtime.
The late goal seemed to deflate the Hawks and neither team was able to mount a serious threat in the first overtime.
With the first overtime giving little opportunity, the Hawks gained the momentum back in the beginning of the second overtime and kept the ball on the Great Danes’ side of the field for most of the 10 minutes.
With only 25 seconds left in the contest, MU gave one final push to win the game, but they fell short. Luke crossed the ball through the box for Nigro, who touched the ball back to Schmid. The captain gathered it and made a shot that sailed wide right of the net locking the game at 1-1 for the final score.
This marks the fourth overtime game of the season for the Hawks, with three of them going into double overtime. With only seven games played in the season so far, overtime has become a regular occurrence for Monmouth.
“It’s certainly taken a toll on me mentally,” joked McCourt on the two overtime periods. “I think it’s a function of us just not being good enough in the final third and putting games away. So that’s something that we have to build towards as we move into conference play.”
The Hawks outshot the Great Danes 18-7 and possessed the ball nearly 80 percent of the time.
McCourt did not have much time to recuperate from the tie as the men were scheduled for Hofstra University on Sunday, September 22 in New Hempstead, NY. The men suffered a 2-1 loss to Hofstra even though they made a valiant effort to comeback as freshman forward Colin Stripling scored his first collegiate goal. With the loss, the Hawks have a 1-4-2 record.
The men will next face a 2-4-1 Central Connecticut State Blue Devils on Saturday, September 28 at The Great Lawn. The start time is scheduled for 7 pm.
PHOTO COURTESY of Jim Reme
