The University of Rhode Island men’s soccer team continued conference play against Saint Joseph’s University on Tuesday, taking a 3-0 victory to improve to 3-7 overall and 1-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
After a nor’easter touched down on Friday, this game was postponed after originally being scheduled for Saturday.
“We’ve obviously had to tweak around some practices based on the weather,” Rhode Island head coach Gareth Elliott said. “We don’t really have an indoor place to train, so we’ve had to do some alternative things to get ready for St. Joe’s.”
Rhody dominated offensively in the first half, outshooting the Hawks 12-4 with seven shots coming on goal.
Rhode Island second-year Everson Goglia moved the ball well in the early minutes, creating a shot for second-year Maksim Kalina that went high over the crossbar on a header for the first shot on goal of the match.
Multiple Rams got in on the action early, as fourth-year Daniel Goba and second-year Luca Krause each had a shot on goal. First-year goalkeeper Alex Smith fended off both shots, as well as four others inside the first 40 minutes.
In the 41st minute, Rhody’s third-year Cassidy Tanddo took a shot on goal that was initially saved by Smith, but third-year Collin Martin was right there to tap in the first goal of the match.
St. Joe’s had a free-kick opportunity after a yellow card to Tanddo shortly after, but could not convert.
Third-year Theo Harris opened the second half with a shot on goal in the first 37 seconds, but missed wide right. A pass from Goglia to second-year Sinan Bruning was disrupted by contact inside the box.
However, the Rams made up for it moments later in the 67th minute. St. Joe’s fourth-year defender Diego Avelar committed a foul inside the box, and fifth-year Tiago Barriguinha put the ball in the top corner of the net to give Rhody a 2-0 lead.
“It was very important to get a two-goal lead,” Barriguinha said. “A big thing for us this season was we haven’t had any clean sheets. Once we got to 2-0, I said we needed a clean sheet, and it was going to be a perfect day.”
Rhody kept the sheet clean and more, after third-year Liam Kuemmritz took an unassisted strike to the bottom right corner of the net for URI’s third goal in the 79th minute.
“It just feels great,” Barriguinha said. “We’ve been in kind of a losing streak, but I thought that throughout this season, we’ve been playing better and better and been finding our identity. I thought we did better, and today was just the rewards of playing good.”
After finally returning to the win column following a three-game losing streak, Barriguinha and his team have a goal in mind heading into the rest of conference play.
“We’ve been trying to go game by game,” Barriguinha said. “Obviously we look to make playoffs, especially since we haven’t made it there in a while.”
The last time the Rams appeared in the Atlantic 10 Championship was in the 2021 season after posting a 5-2-1 record in conference play.
