The high-powered St. Louis’ offense proved to be too much for the Rams to control in their 3-1 loss last Saturday. PHOTO CREDIT: Contributed by gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island’s Men’s Soccer team closed out the regular season Saturday with a 3-1 loss to No. 10 Saint Louis University.
Only 20 minutes into the game, Saint Louis’s Simon Becher scored the first goal of the night, putting Billikens ahead 1-0.
Later in the half, the Rams committed a foul inside the box, giving the Billikens another opportunity to add to their lead. At the penalty spot, midfielder Kipp Keller fired a shot past goalkeeper Stefan Schmidt to make it 2-0 Saint Louis heading into halftime.
The early deficit forced the Rams to play a heavily defensive game.
“Saint Louis is a tough team to play against,” defender Zach Drayer said. “They have a very distinct play style that is tough to stop.”
The second half was much of the same for URI as they continued to fight for scoring chances while playing heavily defensive. The defense held up until a bad pass by Jordan Koudah left Saint Louis midfielder John Klein free with a one-on-one opportunity against Schmidt. Klein took two touches before firing a shot past Schmidt to make it 3-0.
It wasn’t until less than five minutes left in regulation time that the Rams scored. Billikens defender Chase Niese committed a foul, giving URI’s Patrick Agyemang a chance to end Saint Louis’ shutout. Agyemang put it past Saint Louis’ Patrick Schulte and cut their deficit to 3-1.
This was not enough to spark a comeback as time ran out in regulation, marking just the second time the Rams have lost in conference play this season.
With some help from Fordham, Rhode Island secured the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament after they played a 1-1 draw against Saint Joseph’s. Despite securing the No. 2 seed in the loss, Rhode Island Men’s Soccer Coach Gareth Elliott wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance.
“It wasn’t our best game,” Elliott said. “Saint Louis was not letting us do what we wanted to do on offense.”
Elliott commended the team’s fight throughout the entirety of the game, however.
“One of the things I ask for is for them to compete for 90 minutes, and they did just that. A team that quits, you’d see them lose by five, six or seven goals,” he said.
Up next, the team takes on Davidson in the quarterfinal round of the A-10 Tournament. Despite a 2-1 loss to the Wildcats earlier in the season, Drayer is optimistic that the team will put out a better performance this weekend.
“Our confidence has not been shaken by this loss and now this is the playoffs, where all the magic happens,” Drayer said. “We’re ready to go against Davidson and ready to give them payback. This is an exciting opportunity to do something amazing.”
According to Drayer, one of the most important things that the team needs to do is play well on defense.
“Defensive solidity is important, especially for the playoffs and terrorizing them on offense as well,” he said. “Never forget why we do what we do.”
These two teams will kick off this Saturday at 7 p.m. at the URI Soccer Complex. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.