The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s soccer team defeated the Siena Saints 3-2 Wednesday afternoon in a battle for first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, upping their lead in the conference standings to six points.
The Bobcats showed their depth, having to run the game without the starting midfield: James Doig, Shaquille Huggins and Max Rothenbuecher.
The Bobcats started the match off with an offensive flurry. Senior forward Ryan Scheiderman flicked the ball over the head of a Siena defender and through to forward Rashawn Dally, who ran his way into the box and ripped a shot far post for a goal, just under 10 minutes into the game.
Most of the first half possession was dominated by the Bobcats, as they created another great chance 20 minutes in. Dally set up freshman forward Eamon Whelan in the box, only to be denied point blank by Siena junior goalkeeper Aleksa Radosavljevic.
Minutes later on the counter-attack, Siena leveled the game at one goal apiece. Redshirt sophomore Tommaso Centemero had a strong run into the right side of the box and tapped a cross over to junior forward Alexander Tejera who tapped it to the back of the net for a goal.
Much of the rest of the first half and game for that matter was played extremely physical and the referees let fouls go throughout the match.
With one minute remaining in the first half the Saints committed a hand ball in the box, forcing a penalty shot for the Bobcats. Eamon Whelan redeemed himself from his early miss drilling the bottom left corner of the net, giving Quinnipiac a one goal lead going into halftime.
The second half began rather slow as neither team could establish possession mainly due to the continuing of the physical play.
However, with 15 minutes remaining junior midfielder Filosmar Cordeiro broke free from the defense and had a clear lane to shoot. Radosavljevic charged at Cordeiro causing a collision and foul in the box. Cordeiro and Radosavljevic were both shaken up, with Cordeiro receiving the worst of the collision.
Subsequently, Whelan found himself taking another penalty kick, and buried this one as well to the bottom left corner of the net, increasing the Bobcats’ lead to two goals. The Bobcats then began to lay back defensively and try to protect their lead, which the Saints
With 11 minutes left Tejera scored again, only to be flagged offsides and have the goal waved off.
Then, with three minutes left Tejera forced a foul in the box and scored on the following penalty kick to cut the lead to one goal in the closing minutes.
The Bobcats have established themselves as the frontrunners to win the conference title with three games remaining in the regular season, and will look to expand their lead with their next game at Saint Peter’s University.
