The University of Rhode Island’s men’s soccer team traveled to St. Louis, Missouri this past Saturday, where they were routed 2-0 by St. Louis University in their third Atlantic 10 conference game of the season. Despite Rhode Island having more shots and taking more corners, the Rams were never able to get into a rhythm offensively.
The game opened up fairly evenly, with neither team having a shot on goal until the 30-minute mark. The first shot on goal would come following a powerful throw-in pass from Billikens Galen Flynn, giving Max Floriani the ability to set up second-year midfielder Mads Peterson who finished the goal, putting St. Louis up 1-0.
The Rams would fail to put a shot on target the entire first half, which is the second time this has happened this season since beginning conference play. The first, came from a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Dayton University.
In the second half, Rhode Island came out energized, having six shots within the first 20 minutes of play.
“Our team really put max effort into the second half,” third-year captain Kevin Castenada said. “[We’re] just unlucky not being able to get a few goals the last three games. Our first half wasn’t as intense as the second half, But the overall effort was really good. We didn’t even really talk about anything motivating [during the intermission], we felt like we were the better team and we just weren’t performing at our highest level.”
During the 57th minute, third-year midfielder Patrick Gryczewski launched a shot on goal from across the box. St. Louis goalkeeper Jeremi Abonnel was able to make a leaping save, keeping the Rams off the scoreboard. Rhode Island continued pressing their attack, as in the 59th minute, third-year forward Isak Oystese caught the Billikens in a three-on-one. He fired a shot from the right side of the box, which was saved by Abonnel. Oystese was able to rebound his shot and shoot again, this time getting it past Abonnel. A St. Louis defender, however, had made his way into the net, and stopped the ball from getting through. In the 20 minutes that followed, Rhode Island would see two more shots just slightly off-target, one coming from Castaneda, and another from Rafa Villanueva.
The dagger came in the 86th minute from St. Louis’ Tanner Anderson, who put in a rebound shot after Rhode Island goalkeeper Edu Rodriguez stopped a shot from Cole Dougherty. Anderson’s goal extended the lead to 2-0, where it sat until the final whistle.
The Rams have faced injuries to many starters over the course of the 2023 season, and any team, when faced with injury, looks to their depth to step up and fill the roles of the starters. Some players have most certainly stuck out, according to the coaching staff.
“A name that springs to mind is Brett Schwab,” Head Coach Gareth Elliott said. “Brett Schwab is a local East Providence kid who we brought on the roster two weeks before pre-season last year…Brett has shown in practice that he deserves a chance in games and he’s also got a lot of versatility. He’s a very hard-working, coachable, and athletic player.”
Schwab came into Saturday’s game at the 62 minute mark. He would finish the game on the field and be a part of the Rams energized second half.
The Rams would continue their busy schedule with a midweek contest at George Mason on Wednesday night, falling 4-2 on the road to stretch their winless streak to five games. First-year Matthias Taylor knotted the game at one from the spot in the first half, while Brandon Birmingham’s first career goal for URI pulled one back later in the second half as the visitors ultimately fell, conceding three goals in the final 45.
Despite a pair of road losses, the Rams look forward to having players come back from injury in the coming weeks. More experience is something that will especially be helpful in conference play, as the Rams try to push for a spot in the Atlantic 10 tournament.
The 2-5-3 Rams will be searching to finally get an Atlantic 10 win this Saturday as they face off against Fordham University this Saturday at the URI Soccer Complex at 7:05 p.m.