Men’s soccer ended the week with a loss and a tie as they were defeated by Princeton 1-2 on Wednesday and tied with Binghamton after a scoreless bout on Saturday.
The Hawks were able to jump to an early lead when sophomore forward Sebastian Rodriguez scored to give the Hawks their first and only lead of the match. Assisting on the goal was freshman forward Julian Gomez.
Their lead would not last as Princeton would score off a corner in the 21st minute. The score would remain 1-1 all the way until halftime.
In the 68th minute the tie was broken when Princeton was awarded a penalty kick after a foul in the box. The Tigers converted on their penalty shot to make the score 2-1 which would ultimately be the final of the game.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted tonight, but the team continues to work very hard,” said Head Coach Robert McCourt. “It was another exciting night of soccer on The Great Lawn. We’re going to continue to build in an effort to get ready for conference play with a lot of new players.”
The blue and white fought until the final whistle in this one and were competitive with Princeton on the box score. The Tigers held a slight advantage over the Hawks in corner kicks by a total of 9-4. They only tallied one less shot on goal than the Tigers did and both teams had 3 saves to their total. Sophomore goalkeeper Sean Murray was the one responsible for the saves in net for the Hawks.
Freshman midfielder Griffin Thomas had himself a day as he registered three shots, which is the most he’s had all season. Offsides was only called once all game and it was against Princeton. Monmouth also committed nine fouls one of which led to the game winning penalty shot.
The Hawks then headed off to Binghamton where they finished in a scoreless draw. While no goals found the back of the net, shots were being fired off as Monmouth was outshot 11-17. While being outshot, Monmouth landed more shots on goal as they had eight while their opponent only had two.
In the first half, Monmouth seemed to have the edge as they registered six shots on goal to Binghamton’s one. Freshman forward Ben Zakowski sent a pass to freshman forward Anthony Arena who took a rip that nearly got through but was stopped at the goal line. Arena made his first start of his collegiate career and he led the team with three shots, which were all on goal.
With just under four minutes left in the first overtime, the Hawks blocked two straight shots inside the 18.
Murray recorded his first shutout of the season in Saturday’s contest as well as the third of his career. In 23 career starts, Murray now has 112 saves.
“Tonight was a tough game against a difficult opponent,” said McCourt. “I give our guys a lot of credit. It was Binghamton’s homecoming and they had a great crowd. Environments like tonight will help this young team continue to grow.”
There were a variety of fouls throughout the game as Monmouth committed 12 compared to the 19 from Binghamton. Monmouth was also called offsides twice while Binghamton was offsides once.
This is the second consecutive season that Monmouth tied with Binghamton as they improved their record to 0-5-1 while tallying their first point in the standings.
Coming up next for the Hawks is a road matchup against Columbia on Friday at 7:00 p.m. This is the Hawks last matchup before the start of conference play.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
