The PSU men’s soccer team tied the Western Connecticut Colonials 1-1 last Sat., Oct. 11 in Danbury. The theme of the game was smothering defenses and lights out performances by both of the team’s goalkeepers.
PSU scored its only goal on a well placed shot at the beginning of the second half by senior George Delano, while West Conn. scored their only goal from senior Patrick Odell. The Panther’s defense was in top shape as it contained West Conn.’s leading scorer Daniel Sanchez, who had several opportunities to find the back of the net but was stopped.
Both goalies posted good games between the pipes with PSU goalie Tyler Shute grabbing 9 saves in goal and West Conn. goalie Dan Michalowski grabbing a very respectable 7 saves for the Colonials. PSU had a chance to seal the win in overtime with Semir Mehmedovic’s shot getting deflected off the top crossbar by Michalowski. Coach Wright was very quick to compliment the effort of several of his players, “Tyler Shute had a strong game in goal, and Semir Mehmedovic was full of running up front. Andreas Cabral played box to box the entire game and George Delano scored a spectacular goal.”
With a tie game as the result, Coach Wright had good things to say about his team and the things they did well, “The guys worked extremely hard in very hot conditions, it was a turf field and the rubber must have had the temp up the low 80’s. We limited WCSU to very few clear chances and had much the better of the game offensively.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming weeks, the team faces two tough teams in Rhode Island College and defending national champion Middlebury, but coach Wright has his team focused on their league game, who is currently undefeated in league play. “It’s a strange week. We have Middlebury, the defending NCAA National Champions on Tuesday, which will be very tough but the only game that matters is Rhode Island on Saturday. That will be an extremely physical game on a very tough surface and our guys will need to be prepared to deal with everything that will be thrown at us.”
PSU will have to focus for both teams, as Middlebury has yet to lose a game. Their goalie has only surrendered a single goal on the entire season and that came in the tie as the rest of the games have been shutouts. RIC on the other hand, is 7-4-2 overall but is undefeated in league play and is currently tied with Southern Maine for the top spot in the league.