The Quinnipiac men’s soccer team (9-5, 5-1 MAAC) didn’t disappoint the thousands of families and relatives that came to visit on parents’ weekend as they defeated the Monmouth Hawks (4-7-2, 3-3 MAAC) 3-1. Quinnipiac extended its win streak to six games to stay atop the MAAC standings with 15 points while Monmouth drops to .500 in MAAC play.
Freshman forward Eamon Whelan got the scoring started for the Bobcats 21 minutes into the contest as he was assisted by senior Ryan Scheiderman using his speed and ball accuracy to set up Whelan for the powerful strike. Just fourteen minutes later, Monmouth committed a foul inside their own penalty area resulting in a penalty kick goal from the right leg of senior midfielder James Doig placing it in the bottom right corner of the cage.
Although the Bobcats lead 2-0 at halftime, the Hawks immediately came out in the second half firing seven shots on goalkeeper Chrysostomos Iakovidis. Iakovidis was up for the challenge today as he made one particular game-changing save at the 18th minute diving left to right to punch the shot away keeping it a scoreless contest at the time. On the other end of the pitch, Monmouth goalkeeper Chris Seager also stood on his head as he made a total of seven saves, with an acrobatic stop at the 58 minute on a semi-breakaway coming from a Whelan strike just inside the penalty area.
Despite of the brilliant goalkeeping on both sides, the Hawks put themselves on the scoreboard via a penalty kick awarded at the 77th minute coming from the recently-named MAAC Offensive Player of the Week David Nigro, giving him the team lead with five goals on the season. The final tally of the game occurred in the 84th minute from sophomore Matthew Taylor on a redirected free kick approximately 25 yards away from the goal frame.
Physicality was the name of the game as a total of 20 fouls were called and four yellow cards were issued. Much of the players’ emotions were clearly invested into this game, a possible factor into the physical style.
The Bobcats look to remain in the driver’s seat in the MAAC standings and extend their win streak to seven games as they move forward to their next matchup against Siena on Wednesday.
