After starting the season with four straight games on the road, the men’s soccer team finally got the chance to play at home against Towson Wednesday afternoon. The Mount Vernon Athletic Complex opener proved to be a heartbreaker as the Colonials were topped 1-0, dropping their record to 3-1-1 on the season, while the Tigers moved to 5-1.
Senior co-captain Matt Miller seemed upset with the results of the arduous contest.
“We need to step up and play for 90 minutes,” Miller said. “We don’t make that one mistake (we made today) and it’s 0-0 and a whole new game. We come back, we practice hard the next couple days, and we play again on Saturday.”
The game pace was quick from the first minute, as the ball traveled all over the field. After five minutes of play, Towson sophomore Pat Healey had a clear shot at the goal from the right side with only the GW goalie, senior Derek Biss, in his way. His shot was misdirected, just missing the right goalpost.
The Colonials then took control of play midway through the first half, but the Tigers were able to gain ball control and launched multiple shots with no successful results. The remainder of the first half had power resting equally between both teams with the defense proving equally as strong from each side.
The second half brought heightened aggressiveness from the Tigers. GW senior co-captain Trevor Martin retaliated Healey’s near-miss from the first half with a header from inside the goalie box that went just wide of the right goalpost.
A minute later, Martin collided with Towson senior Kyle Coleman, breaking Coleman’s two front teeth and leaving Martin on the ground with a head injury. Martin remained on the bench for the rest of the game while Coleman returned late in the game.
With 26 minutes remaining, Towson had a scoring opportunity off a penalty kick, and the Tigers were able to take advantage. Healey kicked a high floater to the right side of the GW box, and among the masses of those attempting to head the ball, Towson sophomore Drew Van Acker came up on top and headed the ball into the left corner of the goal.
The Tigers dominated much of the remaining play. With 15 minutes remaining, GW began attacking, taking every open opportunity to make a shot on goal, however they came up empty handed. In a final attempt to even the score, coach George Lidster pulled Biss from goal and moved him to a scoring position. The changeup proved nearly effective, as Biss took a header with 15 seconds remaining that grazed the edge of the goal. While Colonial players and fans cheered, Towson goalie Zak Thompson grabbed the ball, and after much debate between the two teams, the referees determined the goal did not count.
Play expired and the Colonials limped off the field knowing that they had lost a seemingly winnable game.
“The game could have gone either way,” Miller said. “We dominated at the beginning and then we let off at the end of the first half. The whole second half we played hard, we were winning tackles and winning head balls, we were just unlucky.”
The Colonials’ next game is against Rider on Saturday at 1 p.m., at Mount Vernon. The Broncos are, as of Wednesday night, 0-5-1.
