The Quinnipiac men’s soccer team took the field on Wednesday against the Siena Saints for senior day with a chance to clinch a berth in the MAAC tournament for a second straight year. The Bobcats would do just that, defeating the Saints by a final score of 2-0. Quinnipiac still sits a top the MAAC standings with a three point lead over Iona, Fairfield, and Rider who are all tied for second.
Before the game the Bobcats would honor their six seniors, three of whom played a pivotal role in the win over Siena. This game marks the final regular season home match for these seniors.
“It can be emotional at times,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa said. “Every year you go through this where you lose great people, great players but just great people, and replacing people is not easy replacing players is easy but replacing people is difficult.”
Senior goalkeeper Borja Angoitia was phenomenal all afternoon for the Bobcats making several acrobatic saves, and was really tested in the second half when he had to make all five of his saves. With the shutout Angoitia moves in to sole possession of first place on the all-time shutout list with his 23rd career shutout. Angoitia now holds the record for most career wins as well as most shutouts by Quinnipiac goalkeeper.
“He’s been instrumental in the success that we’ve had,” Da Costa said. “He’s shown tremendous improvement every year, from his freshman to now, he’s gotten better every single year. It’s a testament to his passion for the game, his belief in himself, and his work ethic.”
The Bobcats came out in the first half looking like the stronger team, dominating possession of the ball, playing the type of game this team always plays starting from their back line and working the ball forward. The first real chance of the game came with 25 minutes left in the first half. Senior Raphael Carvalho found fellow senior Machel Baker on a cross pass but Baker’s shot sailed over the net ending the scoring opportunity for the Bobcats.
Five minutes later the duo of Carvalho and Baker would strike again, this time finding the back of the net. Junior James Greco dibbled the ball up the sideline before finding Baker just outside the box who settled the ball before Baker found a wide open Carvalho. Carvalho booted the ball past Siena goalkeeper Josh Weiss to give the Bobcats the lead on Carvalho’s fifth goal of the year.
When the second half started the Saints came out with much more pressure on the offensive end, something that was lacking from their game in the fist half.
“They were not really pressing in the first half. I think they were trying to score a goal from a corner or a set piece,” Angoitia said. “They came pushing in the second half, and I think we defended very well again today.”
The Saints kept up their pressure for majority of the second half. Angoitia and the other Bobcat defenders had to make several key plays to preserve the 1-0 lead for the Bobcats.
With just over 25 minutes left in the second half Angoitia made a diving save to knock the ball out of bounds after Uros Antic of Siena riffled a shot on net looking to even the game up.
Later, with just over ten minutes left in the match Angoitia again had to make an acrobatic save off a shot from Junior Rosero of Siena who shot the ball from the top of the box making Angoitia leap to knock the ball over the crossbar keeping his team in the lead.
Baker would add an insurance goal for the Bobcats with four minutes remaining in the game. Angoitia punted the ball deep across midfield to Baker who was able to chip the ball over Siena’s goalkeeper increasing the lead to 2-0.
Another bright spot for the Bobcats was the return of junior Stevenson Hawkey who made his return to the field after being out since being injured in the game on Sept. 7 against Providence.
Angoitia and the Bobcats clinched their second straight trip to the MAAC tournament. It is an accomplishment that Da Costa is proud of, but this team still wants to be the number one seed in the conference tournament.
“Our objective is to finish as high as we possible can,” Da Costa said. “We want to finish as high as we can and we know in order to do that we need to approach this game as positive as we can.”
The win against Siena marks the final regular season match for Quinnipaic at home this season. The Bobcats finish the regular season on the road as the travel to Iona on Saturday before finishing the regular season at Fairfield on Nov. 5.
