By Gabbi Riggi
Goals from senior captains Brandon Strain-Goode (Toronto, Ontario) and Simon Hinde (Canberra, Australia) gave men’s soccer a 2-0 win over Fairfield.
Two weeks after leaving the pitch because of an injury, junior goalkeeper Borja Angoitia (Bilbao, Spain) was back in net for the Bobcats. He stopped all three shots fired against him by the Fairfield Stags, giving him his second conference shutout of the season.
Strain-Goode praised Angoitia’s efforts.
“Borja is really one of the leaders on the team from the back end and we can always count on him,” Strain-Goode said. “He’s a reliable player, he made some good saves today and some good grabs.”
Head coach Eric Da Costa was also glad to have Angoitia back because of his vocal nature on the pitch.
“[Angoitia’s] communication is very good and he’s able to organize a lot of things,” Da Costa said. “It was good to have him back. It was his first game back since the injury and he showed a lot of bravery today to step right in and have a pretty good performance.”
The Bobcats were able to put the game-winning goal up on the board early. In the 22nd minute, Strain-Goode was able to convert a feed from sophomore Tobi Esche (Bremen, Germany) as it sailed over the head of the Fairfield keeper, Joe Martin.
The ball bounced in along the left post, getting there just before any Stag defenders could clear it from the net. Strain-Goode’s goal was his first on the season and came during a strong and cohesive offensive effort in the first half for the Bobcats.
In a more physical second half, the Bobcats were given seven fouls and two yellow cards, one to junior midfielder Justin Ward (New Egypt, N.J.) and one to freshman defender James Doig (Liverpool, England).
It took until the 88th minute for the Bobcats to put a second goal on the board. Hinde put his team-leading eighth goal of the season up from a pass from senior Sam Nicol (Edinburgh, Scotland) on a ball kept in Fairfield’s half of the pitch by Esche.
Hinde thought the team adapted quickly to the more physical play in this game.
“It was very scrappy,” Hinde said. “They had a lot of players on their team that liked to take it long … We had a close loss against Monmouth and that’s the exact response we wanted. We’re very happy even though this wasn’t the kind of game we wanted to play. Still, 2-0 win, clean sheet, that’s a critical result for us.”
The last home game of the season and senior day for the Bobcats is this Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. They look to keep their position at the top of the MAAC as they face St. Peter’s University.
