In the waning minutes of the second half, Stony Brook Men’s Soccer junior midfielder Joey Landicino sprinted down the right sideline with the ball in possession and took a desperation shot for the corner of the goalpost that rolled past, just missing a sliding Seawolf. This summed up a hard offensive day for Stony Brook, who were shut out in a game that came down to a spectacular goal as they fell 1–0 to St. Francis Brooklyn.
“Tough result based off the run of play,” head coach Ryan Anatol said in a press release. “We carried the majority of the game but St. Francis Brooklyn defended really deep and were well organized and made it difficult for us. We need to get sharper in the final third to create better opportunities.”
It was a defensive battle that saw a goalless first half and took until 20 minutes left in the second half before the first goal. Stony Brook had two shots on goal early in the game but both were rejected by Terriers goalkeeper Callum James. The trend of missed shots continued in the first half, and Stony Brook’s offense could not get anything going the entire game. St. Francis Brooklyn sophomore forward El Mahdi Youssoufi kicked a long range shot in the 69th minute, with defenders draped over him, which proved to be the decisive goal that sent Stony Brook to 0–1 on the season.
The Seawolves have to feel good about the overall quality performance from the defense as a whole, which did a good job in terms of not surrendering shots. The lone goal in the game came when Stony Brook freshman goalkeeper Edmond Kaiser was not expecting a shot from long range and drifted too far out from the goal, causing him to be defenseless as he saw the ball sail over him and hit its mark. Nothing puts more heat on a goalkeeper than having to maintain a shutout of the other team while the offense is not firing on all cylinders, but that is the situation Kaiser faced in his first collegiate match.
Ultimately, in a game decided by a few inches, the Seawolves fell just short and took their first loss of the year. This game marks the first time the Seawolves were shut out in their season opener since Aug. 29, 2014 against the Central Connecticut Blue Devils, a season in which they went 4-13-2. They hope to rebound in a match against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the comfort of Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium on Monday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.
