Stevens Shuts Out Ithaca In Men's Soccer Match for First Place
HOBOKEN, N.J. (October 15, 2011) – Junior Victor Daza (North Plainfield, N.J.) of the Stevens Institute of Technology men’s soccer team scored the only goal of the Ducks’ homecoming game with Ithaca College on Saturday evening in battle of teams with unblemished Empire 8 records. Sophomore goalkeeper Paul Killian (Ellicott City, Md.) earned the shutout for Stevens (11-2, 4-0), while the Bombers fell to 4-6-1 and 3-1 in the league.
The match began slowly, with just three shots taken between the two teams in the first 20 minutes as the two sides spent the opening stretch of the game feeling each other out.
Finally, 22 minutes into the game, Zach Adler (McKinney, Texas) found Daza in space outside the box and fed it to him on the left side. Daza corralled the pass and surveyed his options before faking a drive and then drilling a high shot over both the Itahca defender and the goalkeeper for the score.
For the rest of the half the Ducks tried to duplicate that score and generate chances with long passes, but no other pair connected. There was, however, an exciting pile-up in front of the Itahca goal after a free-kick opportunity, but the half expired without a shot taken.
The teams were neck-and-neck at the break statistically: Ithaca led 6-5 in shots and both teams had each taken one corner kick.
Three minutes into the second, Daza and Adler tired to hook up again but could not get a shot off in a good scoring opportunity in the North side of the field.
Ithaca then had perhaps its best chance of the afternoon. Tim Goldman (Fayetteville, N.Y.) drilled two point-blank shots four seconds apart, but one was blocked down and the other saved by Killian to keep the game 1-0.
The Bombers played more desperately in the final quarter hour and engineered two runs where their attackers gained a step on the Stevens defense. The first one resulted in a shot over the crossbar, the next was redirected to give Ithaca a corner kick that would ultimately prove fruitless.
The Bombers’ final shot came with four minutes left, though they did make the final seconds interesting with a corner kick at 89:32 that saw even the goaltender up front attempting to get the trying strike. But the ball was punched back into the Itahca zone, sealing the Ducks’ 10th straight win.