Two first half goals give Rhody the Victory
Sophomore striker Isak Oystese scored the first of three goals that gave the Rams a 3-1 win. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island Men’s Soccer team continued their unbeaten season on Saturday, coming out with a 3-1 victory vs. regional rivals at the University of Connecticut— only their second victory against UConn since 1979.
The Rams came out flying, finding the back of the net twice in the opening 30 minutes. Just under 10 minutes into the game, Kevin Castaneda won the ball in the midfield, dribbled into the final third and eventually found Isak Oystese on the left wing. Oystese sent a driven shot into the bottom right corner from outside the box, beating Huskies goalkeeper Michael Stone and giving the Rams the 1-0 advantage.
20 minutes later, Rhode Island found themselves on the attack once again. This time it was Patrick Agyemang whose close control saw him find his way out of trouble against three defenders just outside the box. The 26th-minute substitute played a ball across the top of the box, eventually finding Patrick Gryczewski on the left. In an almost identical fashion to the first goal, Gryczewski sent the ball into the bottom right corner from outside the box, putting the Rams ahead by two.
Despite the early lead, Head Coach Gareth Elliott was not completely satisfied with the first half.
“We wanted to play with high intensity, and have a lot of the ball, and move it around,” Elliott said. “It didn’t really happen, UConn had a lot more of the pressure, although I think we looked quite dangerous on the counter, and that’s how we scored both of our goals in the first half.”
With an hour left to play, this game was far from over. Just two minutes after the Rams doubled their advantage, Rhode Island defender Carlo Kettig picked up the first yellow card of the match, giving the Huskies a free kick in their attacking half. Mateo Leveque swung the ball into the box from the set piece, finding the head of Soren Ilsoe, who headed it home from close range to cut the deficit in half. The score remained 2-1 going into halftime.
“The second half of the first half was not good, they [UConn] got the goal,” Isak Oystese said. “A 2-1 lead I would say is the most dangerous score in the game, so we had to move up a level, and play better.”
UConn had the attacking advantage coming out of the break, outshooting the Rams 6-1 in the second half. Five saves on the night from Rhody goalkeeper Max Hinke helped the Rams keep the ball out of the net and preserve the lead.
Oystese almost had his second goal of the night midway through the second half, curling one into the far-right side netting from close range. An offsides call from the assistant referee eventually ruled out the effort, and the score remained 2-1.
With just 25 seconds left to play, following a heavily defensive second half for the Rams, junior forward Rafa Villanueva found himself through on goal. He calmly slotted the ball past Michael Stone and into the bottom right corner, sealing the 3-1 win for the URI.
“It’s a really good feeling, to defend for 15 minutes at the end is really, really stressing. It was a good finish by Rafa [Villanueva],” Oystese said.
Despite being outshot 15-4 on the night, the URI defense stepped up for their second consecutive victory vs. UConn, something that they have not accomplished in 14 previous meetings between the two sides.
“It’s always nice to win, it’s always nice to beat UConn, regional rivals, so it should give us some confidence,” Elliott said.
Rhode Island travels to Fairfield on Wednesday night in their final non-conference tuneup before Atlantic-10 play begins on Saturday at Fordham.