By: Taylor Massey QBSN Staff Writer
The brisk breeze of a fall afternoon wasn’t enough to wake up the men’s soccer team as they fell short in a 3-0 loss to conference rival Monmouth. This was the first time the Bobcats have been faced with defeat in conference play this season.
“I thought we fell asleep at the wrong time,” head coach Eric DaCosta said. “We had some mental mistakes that they really capitalized on.”
Monmouth took an early lead and never looked back. About six minutes into play, Matt Beverin sent the ball sailing over Bobcat defense to Francois Navarro who was waiting by the back-post. Navarro blasted a shot that a diving Borja Angoitia (Bilbao, Spain) was unable to grab.
No more than four minutes later, the Hawks scored again to make it a 2-0 game. Angoitia sprinted out of net to retrieve the ball, but misjudged his own speed. Monmouth player Alex Weidman beat Angoitia just in time to get a toe on the ball and send it between the posts. Stephenson Hawkey (Pennington, N.J.) raced to attempt a save but was a second too late.
For the remainder of the half the Bobcats managed to fend off the Hawks’ attacks but had little offensive success. Monmouth’s unbreakable defense did not allow Quinnipiac to get within 20 or 30 yards of the goal. Restricted to far shots, the Bobcats’ tries were easily picked up by Hawk goalie Alex Blackburn.
Into the second half, Navarro capitalized early on a free kick as a result of handball call. The extra insurance secured the Hawks 3-0 lead that would become the final score.
“Monmouth’s a good team. We knew that coming in and we knew we had our hands full,” DaCosta said. “The second half, we showed that we’re capable of being able to play toe and toe with them, but with a three-goal lead, it’s a different ball game at that point.”
Missed opportunities plagued the Bobcats, but they did show more liveliness as the match progressed. They outshot the Hawks 5-3 in the latter half and 8-7 overall.
An opportunity arose on a midfield kick from Hawkey down to Erik Panzer (Nelson, New Zealand), but the shot tumbled just over the post. Tim Quigley (Ridgefield, Conn.) also found a few openings, but sent each one high.
Ultimately, the ability to take control of mistakes and keep the pressure on gave Monmouth the victory. The defending NEC Tournament Champions advance to 2-1-1 in conference play.
The loss drops the Bobcats to a matching record of 2-1-1 in the NEC and 4-5-2 overall. This will hopefully come as a wake-up call for the rest of their season.
Next up they will take to the road again, heading to Bulldog stadium to face Bryant on Sunday, Oct. 14. The Bulldogs are currently 1-3 in conference and will take on LIU Brooklyn Friday before hosting Quinnipiac.
