The Men’s Soccer team is continuing their strong start to the season, especially with their past two performances in games against Rutgers University-Newark and Misericordia University. Against Rutgers-Newark, the team posted a 2-1 win, and against Misericordia University, the team played in a hard-fought game that ended in a 0-0 tie.
On October 4, the Ducks played Rutgers-Newark at the DeBaun Athletic Complex, a win which marked the last non-conference game of the season. The game started off very quickly, with Rutgers-Newark making strong offensive moves and even forcing graduate-student goalkeeper Justin Cross to make a diving save only 53 seconds into the game. They kept this offensive momentum and were ultimately the first to score a goal. However, the Ducks quickly answered this goal, and only two minutes later, they scored their first goal to tie the game 1-1. Senior Adam Cohen passed the ball for the assist and first-year John Kovalchuk scored a header. This goal marks the first of Kovalchuk’s career, and the first assist of Cohen’s career. The team continued this offensive drive and sophomore Max Rokhsar scored a goal to take the lead and improve the score to 2-1 just before the first half ended. Additionally, this marks Rokhsar’s first goal of his career. Throughout the second half, Rutgers-Newark had many attempts at scoring, all of which were saved by Cross in goal. Throughout the game, Cross totalled 5 saves. Furthermore, on the offensive end, the Ducks took 16 shots, with eight on goal.
Later in the week, on October 7, the Ducks traveled to Dallas, PA to play a conference game against Misericordia University that ended in a 0-0 tie. This game continues the team’s undefeated conference play record for the season. Additionally, it marks the team’s fifth shutout of the season. In the first half of the game, Stevens started out strong with its offense, by attempting two shots on goal in the first twelve minutes. However, for the rest of this half, neither team recorded a shot on goal, and so the score remained 0-0 at halftime. In the second half, Misericordia first recorded a shot on goal, forcing the team to make a save. The Ducks upped the ante, and in return, recorded another shot on goal, but again they were unable to score, and so the game ended in a 0-0 tie. The Ducks proved to have a stronger offense than Misericordia, with the team totalling 11 shots, with three on goal, compared to Misericordia’s seven shots, with only one on goal.
The Ducks will be returning to play on Saturday, October 14 at DeBaun Athletic Complex for their Mental Health Awareness Game against DeSales University.
