Hamden, CT – The Quinnipiac Bobcats tied against Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday afternoon. Alex Miller scored in the eighth minute of the match for the Bobcats and put them in front 1-0 early while Raimondo Partito scored for the Mountaineers with just 39 seconds left to tie it at 1. There would be no scoring in the second half, ending the game 1-1 and giving the Bobcats their third tie of the season in MAAC play.
In the first half, Quinnipiac looked like they were going to make this a high-scoring offensive game and maybe break their scoring slump. The Bobcats hadn’t scored since their first game of the month against Iona and went scoreless in the next two matchups against Marist and Siena.
In the eighth minute of the contest, Miller found a loose ball after a collision in a one-on-one with Brage Aasen. Miller got a good shot on it and beat the keeper and pocketed a strike.
Quinnipiac gained momentum after the goal. The Bobcats had some excellent chances in front of the net, including a deflection in the box from Tomas Svecula that didn’t find the net. Another great chance came for the Bobcats during the 30th minute when Filip Kangeman received a great feed, allowing him to get past the Mountaineers’ goalkeeper, Ethan Russell. After getting around Russell, Svecula took a shot while moving to his right but couldn’t curl it enough, pushing it right. It appeared to be an open net, and the opportunity to make it 2-0 was missed.
There was a lot of back-and-forth action in the next 10 minutes, with both sides earning corner kicks and offside calls. It wasn’t until there were two minutes left in the half that the Mountaineers found a great chance.
After a cross was cleared, the Mountaineers struck gold. A beautiful set play was made with passes from Bobby Marstellar to Mackie Sacarellos and, finally Raimondo Partito. Partito got free behind the defense line where the Quinnipiac defenders almost stopped running, looking for an offsides call. No call was made, and Partito went one-on-one with Karl Netzell on the near side of the pitch. Partito kicked it under the arms of Netzell and found the left side of the net, evening the game at 1 at the end of the first half.
Going into the second half, tempers flared between both sides. There was a lot of talking and fouls were added to the mix.
The Mountaineers received three yellow cards, and the Bobcats received one. After numerous corner kicks and opportunities, nothing came close to the net until the last minute. A cross came in and found Aasen. The cross was right to him, and he attempted to volley it but only managed to put a spin on it without getting enough foot. The ball was touched down by Russell, and this ended the game in a tie once again.
“Our objective is always to win and pick up three points. There’s no consolation, no celebration. We’ll take it and move on to St. Peter’s.” Head Coach Eric Da Costa said about the winless streak.
The Bobcats will travel to St. Peter’s on Saturday at 2 p.m. in search of their first MAAC win.
