Two days after their win over Rhode Island, the Stony Brook Men’s Soccer team hosted the Villanova Wildcats this Sunday afternoon.
The first half was defined by strong defensive performances by both teams and neck and neck offensive production. Neither team allowed a goal, both limiting each other to only seven shots in the first forty-five minutes. However both teams had their chances to take an early lead, both stopped by solid team defense and fantastic goalkeeping from both sides.
Redshirt freshman goalie Jason Orban made an impressive save on a Villanova strike in the middle of the first half, while Villanova goalkeeper Andrew Weakly made a diving stop to end a threat from sophomore defenseman Mario Mesen, who had beat his man with a masterful display of footwork.
Perhaps the best chance Stony Brook had came in the early minutes of the first half, when an errant strike by Villanova nearly resulted in an own goal, with the ball both hitting the crossbar and narrowly crossing the goal line before it was cleared away.
In the second half, however, the two days of rest began to take its toll, with Stony Brook failing to generate a single shot on goal in this time.
Their defensive effort stayed strong, only allowing two shots, only one of which was on goal. Yet, one was enough for junior midfielder Hayden Harr of Villanova, who capitalized on a corner kick from the Ghanian midfielder Oscar Umar by heading it into the far right of the net thirty minutes into the second half.
This proved to be enough to edge the defensively minded Stony Brook team, and the game ended with a final score of 1-0.
However, the final score does not reflect a poor performance of the Seawolves. In fact, when asked, coach Ryan Anatol said, “I thought this was the best performance of the season.”
“We’ve got to get better in front of the goal.” he also said, addressing areas to improve.
Overall, the team played great defensively and showed a lot of heart for the entire ninety minutes. There is definitely room for improvement, and coach Anatol put it best when asked how they can improve for their next game at Fordham on Friday, simply putting it, “we’ve got to get more ruthless.”
