A Tough Loss

October 11

We lost 1-0 to St. Lawrence on Saturday, putting us on the brink of elimination from the Liberty League playoffs. In the end, St. Lawrence was just a better team, and while we fought hard and played well, it wasn’t enough to steal the points that we desperately needed. We suffered a big hit before kickoff when our starting striker Jon Hootnick was forced to sit out with a knee injury. Without Jon, our regular target man and leading goal scorer, we lacked bite up front and didn’t create many chances despite some periods of good possession.

The first period was fairly evenly-matched, and we went into halftime with high hopes that we could emerge with a victory. As the second half progressed however, St. Lawrence grew more aggressive in going forward and we were forced to defend more and look for a counter-attack. Twice St. Lawrence hit the crossbar, but the game remained scoreless until the 70th minute, when a great individual effort by St. Lawrence striker Kiel Dwyer broke the deadlock. With a burst of speed, Dwyer beat our defense to a through ball and sent a shot low to the far post. For a third time the ball hit the woodwork, but we didn’t get the lucky bounce we needed as it rebounded into the net, giving St. Lawrence the lead it needed. While everyone on the field gave their all for 90 minutes, we were unable to score and now go into our RPI game next Saturday needing a result to stay alive.

With three league games to go, we sit tied for sixth place with Skidmore at 1-3. The final playoff place is currently held by Union, 4 points ahead at 2-1-1. We’ll need at least two wins and a draw from our final three games, and possibly three wins, in order to make the playoffs. Given that we play the top two teams in the league (undefeated Hobart and RPI) along with defending champion Hamilton, this is a huge task, but until we are actually eliminated we need to continue believing in ourselves