Men’s soccer opened its 2008 schedule with a pair of road games against two tough opponents. The Seawolves salvaged a tie with a big comeback in the first game against rival Hofstra University and lost a heart breaker to Lehigh University on a goal in the 90th minute.
The team traveled to Hofstra on August 29 to open the 2008 campaign in front of a record setting crowd of 1,062 at Hofstra Soccer Stadium. The game was scoreless through the first half, with Stony Brook senior goaltender Dawid Ditrich making three saves. His counterpart James Winters made one save in the half.
Early in the second half Hostra was able to get on the board first. Demont Mitchell’s diving header from eight yards out gave the Pride the 1-0 lead. Just over 12 minutes later Steven Ehrichs headed a ball past Ditrich to give the Pride a seemingly comfortable 2-0 lead.
But the Seawolves did not give in, and answered back with a goal of their own less than nine minutes later. Freshman Tom Butler scored his first career goal on a shot from 15 yards out into the upper right corner of the net. Diego Acero was credited with the assist on the goal that got Stony Brook back into the game.
In the 88th minute, sophomore Mladen Ramic of Serbia was able to head in a ball past Winters to tie the game for the Seawolves. Petar Rakovic got the assist with his long free kick.
The game remained tied into overtime, when Tom Butler nearly won the game in the 98th minute but was turned away by Winters. Neither team registered another shot on goal and the Seawolves were able to come out of hostile territory with a well earned tie.
On August 31 the Seawolves took on a tough Lehigh team in Bethlehem, Pa. After a relatively quiet first half that saw each keeper only make one save a piece, Lehigh bombarded Ditrich in the second half with eight shots on goal, the seventh of which eluded him for the only goal of the game.
After falling behind in the 90th minute the Seawolves mounted one more offensive attempt, but a header by Mladen Ramic was turned away by Lehigh keeper Jonathan Nydell to preserve the shutout. Ditrich had to make another save on Steven Avena after that, but Stony Brook was unable to get anything past Nydell and fell by a score of 1-0.
The Seawolves travel to Storrs, Ct. on Wednesday night to battle the #2 ranked Huskies. They then open up the home schedule on Sunday, September 7 against Long Island University.
