A wet field could not slip up the Stony Brook men’s soccer team last night at its Ivy League foe.
The Seawolves (3-1) traveled to New York City on Tuesday, Sept. 6 to take on the Columbia Lions. They kept the good times rolling, winning the game 2-1 and spoiling the home opener for the Lions at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium.
Stony Brook came out hot and had Columbia on its heels at the start of the game, collecting three corner kicks within the first six minutes of the game. After squandering their first four corner kicks, midfielder Moses Bakabulindi sent a cross from the left corner into the box that skipped past goalkeeper Michael Collodi. The Seawolves went up 1-0 and doubled their lead in the 32nd minute off of another corner kick. This time it was defender Rondell Payne, who took an in-swinging cross from midfielder Trausti Birgisson off his left shoulder and into the net.
Stony Brook’s two-goal lead held strong until the 76th minute when Columbia forward Jake Novoshelski cut the lead in half. He capitalized on an attempted Stony Brook clearance while defending a free kick and fired it into the top left corner past the diving goalkeeper Curtis Copenhaver.
Outside of that one mishap, it was a strong day for the Stony Brook defense. They forced their opponents to take a lot of tough shots. Only three of Columbia’s 14 shot attempts were on goal. Stony Brook also dominated in corner kicks, with a 14-2 advantage in that department.
Bakabulindi became the third Seawolf to reach multiple goals this year. As for Payne, he became the fifth Seawolf to score in 2022. His goal was only the second goal of his career and the first since his freshman year in 2018.
For the second straight year, the Seawolves are off to a 3-1 start. In those four games, they scored twice as many goals as their opponents despite being outshot 47-41. So far, Stony Brook’s defense has only allowed an 8.5% shot percentage and a 42.6% shots on goal percentage.
Columbia had been 7-0-1 in their home openers under head coach Kevin Anderson until its loss to Stony Brook on Tuesday.
Looking ahead, Stony Brook will be traveling down to Elon, North Carolina to face the Elon Phoenix on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Phoenix are 2-1 on the season and are coming off of a 2-1 loss in their last game against Northeastern. The Seawolves will be looking to capture their first four-game winning streak since the 2018 season.
