“We never play to draw, we always play to win.” Said men’s soccer head coach Eric Da Costa at the end of the Bobcats’ game against Manhattan on Wednesday evening, a decisive 2-1 victory over the Jaspers, breaking the 2023 and 2024 losing streak against the team, in which they lost 3-2 and 4-2, respectively. 

The Bobcats entered the game with a 3-7-1 overall conference record and a two-game losing streak; however, the Bobcats came away with the victory. 

With goals by Sivert Ryssdalsnes, who leads the team in points, and Sindri Sigurjonsson, adding another player to the list of Bobcats who have scored this season.

The starting lineup for the Bobcats included different names from past matches, as Matthew Pisani is the third goalkeeper that the Bobcats have started in the past three games. 

In the first half, the Bobcats started with the ball at kickoff. As the close game continued, both teams were aggressive but struggled to get the ball into the net, with many shots by Ryssdalnes, Fynn Ost, and Drew Seguro in the early minutes, going high over the net. 

Although this momentum and desire to score continued throughout the game. Manhattan also had many shots on goal, with  William Fagerberg, the recent MAAC Offensive Player of the Week, and Max Asplin-Rowley. However, Pisani managed to keep the ball out of the goal, thus ending the half zero to zero, despite both teams’ best efforts. 

Starting with the ball at half, in the 51st minute of the second half, Manhattan scored as Fagerberg found the lower left corner of the net, giving the Jaspers the lead. Just four minutes later in the 55th minute, Quinnipiac responded, with Rysdalsnes scoring his sixth goal of the season, with a shot to the left corner of Manhattan’s net. 

Seguro was persistent, constantly testing the Jaspers’ goalkeeper, Ludvig Malberg, although he was unable to score. On the other side of the field, Pisani was able to keep Manhattan from scoring again, with many game-altering saves. 

The Bobcats were also able to get many breakaways with the ball; however, none of them resulted in a goal for the team. The Jaspers got three yellow cards in the second half of the game, including one to Lucas Cobo in the closing minutes of the half, as well as some to Tolu Joseph and Henry Reinhart.

Despite looking as though the game would end in a tie, Sigurjonsson was able to score the final goal for the Bobcats, with an assist from Mateo Balbino, leading Quinnipiac to win the game 2-1

This victory is Quinnipiac’s fourth win over the Jaspers in the last two years, improving their conference record to 2-3-0. 

In this game, the Bobcats showed their resilience, not allowing a goal to break their momentum, not only coming back from a goal behind but also winning by one. The Bobcats look to use the momentum of this win when they take on Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland on Saturday.