Matt Gad – Sports Writer
There was plenty of offense to go around last Saturday afternoon at Jess Dow Field as the men’s soccer squad doused one-win Nyack, 5-0.
The goals were scored by sophomore Francisco Roldan Martin, from Malaga, Spain, freshman Daniel Utgaard, from Kristiansand, Norway, sophomore Ignasi Perez Cererols, from Barcelona, sophomore Nicolas Ruiz Colodrero, from Zaragoza, Spain and sophomore Lukas Szymecki, from Wethersfield, Conn.
“I was disappointed in our performance against Saint Michael’s so we spoke about holding ourselves to a little bit of a higher standard and to not get caught up in what our opponent’s record was,” head coach Tom Lang said. “We just need to be more focused on our performance and doing the things that we need to do to be a better team. I thought there were times that we did that but I also felt like our opponent kind of broke up our rhythm an awful lot.”
The Owls scored two goals in the first half and three in the second to put Nyack away in shutout fashion. Junior Devante Teixeira also had a career-high three assists in the win.
“It feels great,” Teixeira said of his assists. “Coach tried to put an emphasis on getting crosses in because, that’s [Nyack’s] weakness. Guys were in good positions and all I had to do was find them — that was the easy part.”
Teixeira’s assists all came in consecutive fashion. He assisted Roldan Martin’s across-the-box goal in the game’s first 10 minutes, Utgaard’s left side score in minute 29 and Perez Cererols’ score with just over 30 minutes left.
Ruiz Colodrero’s goal in minute 71 was assisted by Perez Cererols and Szymecki’s goal two minutes before the game ended went unassisted.
“I thought [Devante] was better today than he was the other night,” Lang said. “I’ve been hard on him the last couple days and I think he’s responded in a very positive manner so I’m very pleased with how he went about his business. Now we need to see that on a consistent basis moving forward the rest of the season.”
The team is now 7-4 overall and 4-3 in conference play and returns to action tonight in Garden City, N.Y. with Adelphi, who are 8-2-1 and 6-1 in the Northeast-10.
“I think that’s been the biggest thing this season in trying to find consistency,” senior Jhony Gonzalez said. “Little by little winning two games but also dropping two games I think it’s a big two-game win streak heading into Adelphi so hopefully we’re gonna be able to keep the consistency and keep marching on.”
The team will be home again this Saturday to take on American International at 2 p.m, one of three home games they have left this regular season, the latter two being Merrimack Oct. 20 and Saint Rose Oct. 23.
“All we can really do is just focus on the next game,” Lang said. “I know it’s cliche but we do just really try to take it one game at a time. We have to go away to Adelphi, who are a very, very good team, and it’s going to present a different challenge for us and we’re gonna have to raise the level of our game again.”
Photo Credit: Palmer Piana
