The Plymouth State Men’s soccer team went 1-1 in the past week and a half, losing to a talented Norwich squad on September 30th, but turning it around with a thrilling 1-0 win over Western Connecticut five days later.
After a scoreless first half, sophomore Jacob Zimmerman hammered in two goals and became the first Norwich player to score in the double digits since 2008, extending his scoring streak to six games.
“Norwich was a tough trip with some injured guys and sickness forcing some changes. The game was very even, but we missed some very simple chances and were made to pay,” said Panther Head Coach Rob Wright. The thing with this team is that although their record is 3-6-1, they don’t play like it. The game in Norwich was the toughest loss of the season for the men, losing by three goals, but every game they’ve played has been a dogfight.
Their next game proved that in full, as they stayed unbeaten in conference play, thanks to a 60th minute goal by Refaat Bashir (Manchester, N.H.) and keeper Felix Lindeberg’s (Stockholm, Sweden) second shutout of the season.
“The guys rebounded very well this weekend past. Playing at WCSU is always tough but the 1-0 result did not reflect how dominant we were during the game,” Coach Wright said.
Bashir’s first goal of the season came after a beautiful pass from teammate Senad Mehmedovic (Concord, N.H.), and proved to be the only scoring of the game as PSU’s defense was dominant.
Coach Wright said that “In our 3 conference games we have been very solid at the back with Felix Lindeberg (GK), Christian Bua, Connor Noe, Aaron Smith, and Alex Herbert all playing every minute of those games.” The Little East Conference games have been the only ones where these 5 have been healthy enough to play every minute together, and given that they’ve only given up one goal in their conference, it’s crucial for them to stay healthy.
On the offensive end, Coach Wright was very upbeat about how things were looking. “Offensively, we are creating good chances against everyone… we just need to improve our finishing and to have some other guys contribute. It was very pleasing to see Refaat Bashir stepping up and scoring the game winner on Sunday.”
The Panthers travel to Rhode Island College on Saturday, October 11th for their 4th conference game of the year.