This past weekend, the RPI men’s soccer team traveled across the country to Colorado for a pair of games in Colorado Springs. The Red Hawks defeated the Cornell College Rams by a 6-0 margin on Friday before falling to a tough Colorado College Tigers team, 3-0—the team’s first loss of the season.
Six different players found the back of the net for the Red Hawks against the Rams. Junior Kevin Swift opened the scoring in the 39th minute with his second goal of the season. Just over four minutes later, junior Ben Russell doubled RPI’s lead with his first tally of the year.
RPI struck four more times in the second half. Freshman Andrew Tambasco got things started in the half with his first goal of the season in the 54th minute. The score stood at 3-0 until the final ten minutes of the contest. Junior Luke Burton, senior Mike Henzel, and freshman Alex Pagageoris all scored in the closing minutes of the game, leaving the final score at 6-0.
The Red Hawks held a dominant advantage in both shots, 29-1, and corner kicks, 15-0; the Rams were unable to challenge the RPI goalkeepers in the match. Neither sophomore Alex Penny nor senior Mike Prince was forced to make a save en route to the team’s second consecutive shutout victory, a third in its last four games. The win increased RPI’s unbeaten streak to eight games, dating back to last year’s ECAC Upstate Tournament.
Two days later, that streak came to an end at the hands of the Tigers. Colorado College scored twice in the first 12 minutes of the game, and the Red Hawks were unable to mount a comeback. Trevor Cobb scored in the seventh minute, and Logan Boccard extended the Tiger lead to two soon after. On the second goal, Head Coach Adam Clinton explained that the Red Hawks had tried to catch the Tigers offsides. “Alex [Penny] came out and made a very good effort to force him to go wide with his angle,” noted Clinton, but Boccard was still able to score. Brendan Douglas tallied Colorado College’s final goal in the closing minutes of the game.
Entering the game, the Red Hawks had averaged an impressive 4.2 goals per game. In this match, however, RPI could not find the back of the net even though the team outshot the Tigers 13-11 and had three more corner kicks. Clinton explained after the game, “Once we settled down, we actually played very, very well.” He continued, “We just couldn’t get a goal today.” Both Penny and Colorado goalkeeper Brian Engle made three saves in the contest.
Following the weekend split, the Red Hawks now stand at 5-1-0 on the year.
Clinton noted that the team will have to continue working on the “attacking third” of the game, including services, runs in the penalty box, and finishes on scoring opportunities.
This upcoming weekend, RPI returns to the northeast with one contest: Saturday afternoon at the Ithaca College Bombers. The Bombers are 4-1 on the season, with the lone loss coming in two overtimes against a strong, undefeated Hamilton College squad.
“This will be a game where there will be a hostile crowd,” stated Clinton. He pointed to the close loss to Hamilton as a sign of the team’s strength, and further noted that “they’re always one of the best teams in their conference.”
Even though this is not a Liberty League game, it is still a very important one. Clinton said that the team will look at the match as if it is a league game. He further explained that a victory could be considered a quality win, helping the team when it comes to qualifying for the NCAA tournament at the end of the season.
