Men’s soccer capped off Senior Day with a memorable win over La Salle Photo by James McIntosh.
The University of Rhode Island Men’s Soccer team took on conference rival La Salle on Saturday in just their second home game of the season. Despite a slow start, the Rams were able to mount a large comeback and win the match 3-2.
The first half of play was dominated by the visitors. La Salle dominated the ball and the opportunities, rarely allowing the Rams to get into their own attacking third. Just six minutes into the match, after an initial shot from the Explorers was saved by redshirt junior goalkeeper Andrew Kempe, the Explorers followed it up with a tap-in and took a 1-0 lead with 40 minutes left in the half.
La Salle continued to apply first half pressure, putting up six shots to Rhode Island’s two while also winning the corner kick battle 3-1. This continued pressure helped La Salle to put on a second goal with two minutes left in the half with an outside-the-box rifle into the bottom corner. This put the Rams in a 2-0 hole to at the end of the first half.
At the halftime break, Head Coach Gareth Elliott said he gave the team a simple message that led to a necessary response.
“I told them we had two choices at that point,” Elliott said, “either lie down and let them beat us three or four to zero or get up and fight. I think we really fought.”
The second half couldn’t have been more different than the first. Just 20 seconds into the second frame, junior forward Hugo Guerra scored off of an assist from fellow junior forward Patrick Agyemang, slicing the deficit in half with plenty of time to score an equalizer.
The pressure from the Rams only continued as they fired five shots on target in the second half, nearly equalizing when a pin-point cross from freshman forward Jannes Werner met the feet of Agyemang. Agyemang was denied by the keeper though, and the score remained 2-1 going into the final third of the match.
Finally, after 20 more minutes of pressure from the Rams, they broke through when another Werner cross found sophomore forward Braden Cannon. Cannon missed the shot, but he was fouled inside of the box, giving the Rams a penalty with 20 minutes to play. Agyemang stepped up to the plate for the shot and buried it, tying the score at 2-2.
That tying goal seemed to ignite a fire in both teams, as things got heated for the remaining 20 minutes of the match. With 17 minutes left, an after-whistle altercation led to a La Salle red card, giving the Rams the man-advantage. However, just 30 seconds later, Guerra was given a second yellow card for a delay-of-game violation and was also dismissed, leaving them both at 10 players each for the remainder of the match.
The two teams went back and forth for the last 17 minutes of play with both having quality chances on goal, but neither could get the edge, thus leading to a golden goal overtime period.
Just six minutes into the first half of overtime, the Rams found the winning goal when a through ball from junior midfielder Kevin Castaneda found Agyemang. The ball was long, but as it was rolling toward the endline, Agyemang managed to slide toward it and get a shot away. That shot was saved by the Explorer keeper, but freshman forward Michael Tavares was in the right place at the right time and tapped in the winning goal for the Rams. 3-2 was the final score and put Rhody’s record at 2-3-1 for the season.
The importance of the win was not lost on Coach Elliott.
“These kinds of games are really important,” he said. “They show us what we are capable of when we fight, and I think that’s all we need to do.”
The Rams will look to continue their winning ways against Massachusetts on Friday in their season finale, when they will seek revenge from a 5-2 defeat earlier in the season. Kick-off is set for 7:00 p.m. at the URI Soccer Complex.