Monmouth men’s soccer finished the non-conference portion of their schedule with a 3-1 victory over the Hartford Hawks at Hesse Field on the Great Lawn last Wednesday night, bumping them up to 3-4-1 on the season.
Monmouth Head Coach Robert McCourt said, “I saw a lot of resilience tonight. Hartford came out and kind of gave it to us a little bit in the second half, but my guys were really resilient, stayed strong, and got the just result in the end I think.”
Monmouth started the match on the front foot when they took the lead in the 15th minute. Sophomore midfielder John Antunes scored his first career goal when he charged his way down the pitch and blasted a rising shot with his right foot into the top right corner of the net from twenty yards away.
Early on in the second half, Monmouth doubled their advantage. Sophomore defender Andy Martinez looped a ball inside of the box to redshirt senior midfielder and captain Colin Stripling, who corralled it and then placed it into the back of the net via the crossbar.
Just minutes later, Hartford had a chance to claw their way back into the game when a Monmouth foul awarded them a free kick from just outside the penalty area. Sophomore midfielder Alexis Triadis made no mistake and buried a strike off of the set piece into the back of the net, cutting the deficit in half.
As the game wore on, Hartford persistently searched for an equalizer. Freshman midfielder Nyrik Antoine launched a shot from outside the eighteen-yard box that needed to be touched away from the goal by Monmouth junior goalkeeper Bobby Edwards. Edwards, who notched three saves on the night, was also forced to make a stop from point-blank range to keep freshman forward Ryan Innes’s shot out of the net.
In the 89th minute, Monmouth put the game to bed when Stripling scored his second goal of the night and third of the season. He received a pass from freshman midfielder Dan Frisch-Harmon and sent a shot into the upper left corner of the goal to put Hartford out of reach.
“We had a lot of energy and a lot of effort from our team, and we needed this one,” said Stripling. “It just puts us on the right foot going forward into conference play.”
The triumph over Hartford ended Monmouth’s four match winless streak in which they had lost three in a row. It also put an end to the non-conference portion of the Hawks’ schedule.
McCourt said, “We played some really difficult non-conference games, and to get this result heading into the conference is good for their [his player’s] psyche.”
The ten remaining games of the Monmouth men’s soccer season will have them face their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference counterparts. The Hawks will begin this stretch of conference play away to hourglass rivals Rider at Ben Cohen Field in Lawrenceville, NJ Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 7:00 p.m.
PHOTO COURTESY of Karlee Sell