By Rebecca Castagna, QBSN Staff Writer
The men’s soccer team is one step closer to securing a home-field advantage for the NEC Tournament after earning a 2-1 win against Central Connecticut State on Friday. Now on a five-game winning streak, the Bobcats improve their overall record to 9-5-2 and 7-1-1 in NEC play, ending the Blue Devils’ three-game winning streak with a new record of 8-7-2 and 6-2-1 for the NEC.
Currently the Bobcats sit in first place in the Northeast Conference.
Though it was a crisp, windy day and many players on the field donned gloves to keep warm, the Bobcats came out with strong defense and offense to get the win.
In the 25th minute, William Daniels (Clackamas, Ore.) ripped a shot into the net with an assist by Simon Hinde (Canberra, Australia). This play, set up by senior captain Philip Suprise (Milwaukee, Wisc.), gave the team a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Devils made several shot attempts in the remainder of the first half with but could not score an equalizer.
Stepping up the intensity in the second half, the Blue Devils took six shots on goal, five of which were saved by goalie and NEC Player of the Week Borja Angoitia (Bilbao, Spain).
With 17 minutes left, CCSU’s Ben Knight crossed the ball to Steven Bailey, who headed it right past Angoitia’s fingertips, tying the game 1-1. This was one of only two goals the Bobcats have allowed in the past two games.
“The defense has been great from Borja and across the back line, into the midfield, and extending all the way to the top forwards,” head coach Eric Da Costa said. “They’ve been resilient. They’ve been confident.”
Five minutes after the equalizing goal, the Bobcats regained the lead with a penalty kick by Robbie McLarney (Londonderry, N.H.). They maintained this 2-1 lead despite a combined 11 Blue Devil shots-on-goal and a goalie substitution with five minutes left to the game.
“It felt good,” McLarney said of his game-winning goal. “It was a big win.”
The Bobcats will keep their momentum going for their final conference game of the year at home against Fairleigh Dickinson at 1 p.m.
McLarney recognizes the potential impact of a win or tie on Sunday, which would lead the Bobcats to win the regular-season Northeast Conference Title and have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time in program history.
“It’ll be absolutely huge,” he said. “We just have to carry over what we did in the first half into FDU and I think we’ll be fine.”
“We have an opportunity to make history,” Da Costa added. “Being in this position is something that we don’t take lightly and we’re going to do the best we can to try to do something no one has done before.”
The team will rest up and prepare for their game on Sunday.
“We’ll spend tomorrow just trying to get our legs back and come down from this emotional high,” Da Costa said. “Then we’ll start talking about FDU.”
