Men’s soccer wins

By Matt Cain

Contributor

After a beautiful ceremony celebrating the seniors, the Owls won 3-1 against the Assumption University Greyhounds in an intense and physical match. All three goals came in the second half, while the Greyhounds threw the Owls off their game during the first half.

In the first half, the Owls saw good looks from outside of the box like defender Alex da Cuhna, a senior, who took two shots in the first but could not connect.

Both teams drew multiple fouls and penalty kicks. The Owls racked up 15 fouls as a team, while Assumption had 12. However, it was not until the second half that the pace began to pick up.

“Everyone was so confident because of the score. We wanted to score early coming out of halftime,” forward Jose Clemente, a senior, said.

After a back-and-forth first half, da Cunha found the back of the net in the first four minutes of the second half.

He took the ball at the midfield point and drove it downfield to Clemente, who stepped around the Assumption defender, drawing the goalkeeper outside of the net.

Da Cunha drilled the ball into the net to put the Owls up 2-0 in the early stages of the second half. He also made an excellent assist to Clemente, who leads the Owls with eight goals this year.

“I would take this performance as an example of how we can play and just take that confidence into the next few games,” da Cunha said.

Assumption answered with a goal on a penalty kick midway in the second half of the game. The Owls, however, came back with another score of their own.

Midfielder Samuel Nagy, a junior, blasted a shot past the Assumption goalkeeper to put the Owls up 3-1. This goal would be his third of the season.

The Owls defense played a big part in the win; goalkeeper Devin Juan, a senior, had seven saves in the game.

Juan also played a part in a confidential call late in the half. As Juan was making a save on a corner kick from Assumption, an Assumption defender and Juan jumped up, and they crashed into each other.

The collision caused a big shoving match between both teams. No flag was raised and no cards were given out. The match proceeded, and the Owls were fired up.

This game was an overall perfect sendoff for the 12 seniors who will be graduating in the spring.

Captain and midfielder Umberto Catale, a senior who has been on the team for three years, was particularly nostalgic after the game.

“I built a family, made friends with people in the department,” Catale said. “These are people who helped me every day. They get us ready for games like this. I’m a little sad it’s coming to an end.”