By Nick Kurti
Staff Writer
New Jersey Athletic Conference play is in full swing this week, and the Lions have struggled in the early conference matchups. Following a 2-1 defeat to Montclair State, men’s soccer started off their NJAC run 0-2-1, in stark contrast to the 5-0-3 non-conference run.
Right from kickoff on Saturday, Oct. 4, the Red Hawks (8-1-2) led aggressively, taking fouls only to immediately clear the ball out of their side of the pitch. Montclair used deep kicks and fast forwards to push in and litter Lions goalkeeper Sean Najdzinowicz with 20 shots. The freshman did, however, log seven saves; a career high for the finance major.
The Lions were not completely outmatched; across free kicks and corners, they had very close shots on goal. From a free kick taken by freshman Matt Will in the 34th minute, sophomore Lawrence Mancino had a header that would have begun the scoring. It went directly into the hands of Red Hawks keeper Pierre Soumeillant, where he would mark his lone save. Just five minutes later, Montclair forward Kyle Moore would get a pass to Tomas Monteiro, who headed it into the bottom right to get the Red Hawks on the board. The score would stay at 1-0 going into halftime.
Coming back from the break, the Lions were looking for any way out of the shutout. In the 59th minute, they conceded a penalty kick goal taken by Sebastian Lapczynsk, and slowly the team was coming back. Whereas the Lions had logged only one shot in the first half, they went on to take seven in the second half. The final 30 minutes of the game became the Red Hawks struggling to keep the Lions out of their half while seven unique players each tried their hand at a shot to attempt the comeback. The closest they got was when junior Chris Meder caught Soumeillant on the floor and nowhere near tending his goal. It would have been freshman Aidan Ayar celebrating, had Montclair defender Carlos Bedoya not cleared the ball away.
With just over ten minutes left on the clock, hope was dwindling until Will broke through. With a quick touch by Ayar, Will beat Jackson Perata, took a shot sharply left, and arced it right over the goalie into the top left. The comeback would not be completed, ending the game for the Lions 2-1.
For their final non-conference matchup, the men’s soccer team hit the road on Tuesday, Oct. 7 to face Haverford for the first time in the program’s recorded history. Within the first eight minutes, the Fords (7-0-6) had already found themselves taking a corner kick. On the first one of the match, Thomas Vanni found Kieran Kunihiro in the box, whose shot failed, but went to Charles Sharp, who struck it into the left corner to score. Haverford would stay up 1-0 for the rest of the half. The Fords outshot the Lions 4-0 in an otherwise uneventful half.
The second half was more of the Lions continuing to attempt a comeback. They were still outshot this half by Haverford 7-4. Meder had a wonderful attempt kicking the ball behind him and into the goal, but Fords keeper Grayson Benson saved it. With just ten minutes on the clock, Meder was coming up the left wing for another shot when Aiden Lee made a dirty tackle just barely inside the box. The junior captain drilled it into the center, Benson dove left, and now the Lions had tied it up 1-1.
However, a long throw-in from the Fords just four minutes later led to yet another goal. Meder went to clear it, but Vanni found it for a shot that Sharp nudged in with the edge of his boot to end the game 2-1.
The Lions’ record now falls to 5-3-4. With the non-conference matchups finally over, Coach DeMatteo and the team are focused solely on NJAC wins.
