The disastrous season continues for the men’s soccer team, who lost to UCAA opponents Skidmore and Union last weekend to drop their record to 1-9 overall and 0-5 in the conference.
On Friday the Red Hawks hosted Skidmore up at Harkness Field and were clearly overmatched. The goals came early and often for the Thoroughbreds, who tallied their first only three minutes into the game. Skidmore would score another—this time off of a penalty kick at 29:27—before the end of the first half.
When the teams took the field for the second half, the Thoroughbreds steamed right along and didn’t look back, pelting substitute RPI Goalie Kenny Guzzardo, who ended the game with only one save and three goals allowed.
Meanwhile, the Red Hawks offense managed to force Skidmore Goalie Stuart Cowen into making four saves, but weren’t able to get one past him. When the final whistle blew, Skidmore had shut out the beleaguered Red Hawks, 5-0.
Skidmore senior Andrew Simon garnered a hat trick for the game, scoring both first-half goals and on a penalty kick in the second half.
The next day, RPI played host to Union College. The Red Hawks never managed to take the lead, but kept it close the whole way through, forcing the game into overtime before finally succumbing, 3-2.
After falling behind 1-0 early, the Red Hawks got their first goal of the weekend when junior Marc Salmin redirected a corner kick past Union Goalie Kevin O’Connor.
But the tie wouldn’t even make it to the end of the half, after Dutchman Graham Lombardo scored on a direct kick with three minutes remaining.
The second half opened with the Red Hawks tying up the score again, this time thanks to Chris Albert’s strong shot that ricocheted off the crossbar and past O’Connor into the net. But neither the Red Hawks nor the Dutchmen could find a way to score after that, and regulation ended with the score tied 2-2.
It was all over nine minutes into overtime, when Pete Divine scored the game-winner on a solo breakaway.
The Red Hawks took 17 shots on the day, forcing O’Connor to make six saves. Union managed 13 shots, four of which were saved by Guzzardo.
RPI also took on Hobart Tuesday at Hobart, but the results of that game were not available at press time.
Beyond Hobart, the Red Hawks have only one UCAA game left on their schedule, when they play host to Vassar on Halloween. Their next match is tomorrow when they travel to Bennington, Vt., to play the Mountaineers of Southern Vermont College.
