After falling to Atlantic 10 opponent Dayton and Ocean State rival Bryant, the boys in Keaney blue returned to the URI soccer complex on Saturday night to take on fellow Atlantic 10 opponent, La Salle University.
Rhode Island was still looking to get their first win in conference play while also looking for their first goal of conference play, but had to settle for a draw on a rainy night in Kingston.
In their first match up in Atlantic 10 conference play, the Rams traveled down to Ohio, to take on Atlantic 10 foe, the Dayton flyers, where they suffered their worst loss since 2012, losing 6-0. La Salle was also looking to take their first win in conference play, as they scored a late penalty to draw against Saint Joseph’s University on Sept. 16. The forecast for the game called for a cold and rainy night, which would affect both squads. While Rhode Island kept possession in La Salle’s defensive third for most of the match, the Rams and Explorers ended the contest at a 0-0 draw. The Rams fell to a 2-3-3 record on the season and 0-1-1 record in Atlantic 10 conference play.
The conditions for the game were wet and cold, which made for a hard-nosed and aggressive match.
“I mean with the weather, that’s something you can’t control,” Second-year forward Mathias Taylor said. “I didn’t really think about it too much, I just went into the game not thinking about the rain, I just went in thinking about the game.”
Taylor had three of the Rams’ 14 shots on goal on Saturday night, one of which was a shot on goal where Taylor had a header, saved by La Salle goalkeeper Filip Sabatti in the 70th minute of the contest. This was one of the best chances of the night for Rhode Island to score their first Atlantic 10 goal, in what surely would have been their first win in conference play. Shortly before this chance, Taylor took a silky touch off of a deflected shot, but missed high, as the conditions made it tough to make a solid connection on the ball.
The best chance of the night came from third-year forward Íñigo Etxegarai, when he went one on one with Sabatti, but missed wide.
Before the most recent losses to Dayton, 6-0, and to Bryant, 4-0, Rhode Island’s defense was stellar. Earlier in the season, Rhody was ranked sixth in the nation in shutout percentage, as they did not let up a goal in their first three matches until they faced their Ocean State rival, Providence College. First-year defender Nikos Clarke-Tosczak, who has started in all eight matches this season, seems to be taking on this responsibility with confidence.
“I always need to be confident and show the opposition in the first duel that they won’t be able to get past me,” said Clarke-Tosczak. “I need to keep good positioning and communication with my left mid because they are also vital.”
The defense can only help out so much when it comes to winning, but the ball needs to be put in the back of the net to win. This season the team has put up 79 shots in total with 31 of those being on goal, and opponents have also put up 79 shots but 33 on goal. The team has only scored five goals on the season, whereas opposing teams have scored 12.
The team’s struggle of converting chances into goals translated into this match against La Salle. The Rams put up 14 shots, while also having 12 corner kicks. They were holding possession for a majority of the match but were not converting the possession into goals. The Rams are only averaging .063 goals per game, while averaging just under ten shots per game.
“We moved it okay, we just didn’t really create enough clear cut chances,” said head coach Gareth Elliot. “We had the ball in their defensive third a lot, in the attacking third and just really felt that the final ball and the final shot wasn’t really there for us, which was really disappointing because we dominated the game from a possession standpoint, but you can’t win when the score is 0-0.”
Next up, the Rams will travel to Saint Louis to take on the Billikens, who are 1-0-1 in Atlantic 10 conference play, on Saturday, Sept. 30 on ESPN+.