Stevens Men's Soccer Takes Down No. 13 Roanoke 2-1
HOBOKEN, N.J. (September 10, 2011) – The Stevens Institute of Technology men’s soccer team scored a big home victory over No. 13 Roanoke College (3-1-0) Saturday evening in the final game of the Stevens College Cup. Sophomore Ernesto Solis put an end to the stalemate in the 72nd minute on a great pass from classmate Edward Rupp to give the Ducks (2-2-0) the edge. Senior Anthony Roden scored the first Stevens goal of the evening.
Action began early at the DeBaun Athletic Complex, with the two sides trading goals in the game’s opening 15 minutes. Both scores came on headers directly off of free kicks, with the Ducks taking the lead on a touch from Anthony Roden served in by Zach Bowman on a free kick 10:03 into the match.
The Maroons answered five minutes later, as Peyton Lambert (Chesapeake, Va.) laid the ball in the box for Chris Conover (Dagsboro, Del.) to put away.
After the furious start to the period, both teams seemed to switch philosophies and registered a 27-minute stretch without a shot taken by either squad. The teams combined for seven shots in the period and four shots on goal, with Roanoke holding 4-3 and 3-1 advantages, respectively.
In the final half of the contest, Stevens seemed to dictate the pace of the game more so than in the first. The Ducks were buzzing early with a couple good chances for junior Zach Adler in the opening minutes. Sophomore Curtis Stecyk had a great chance as well midway through the final frame, as his tracer was barely deflected by the goalkeeper over the crossbar with 26 minutes to go.
Solis finally snapped the tie after Rupp headed a pass over the Roanoke defensive line with less than 20 minutes left to go. Rupp’s touch gave Solis a 1-on-1 matchup on the left side with the Roanoke keeper that he buried.
After the Ducks played well to maintain their lead in the endgame, Stevens sophomore goalkeeper Paul Killian iced the victory by intercepting Carl Leist’s (Christianburg, Va.) crossing pass with 20 seconds to go.
Stevens ended the game outshooting the Maroons 11 to six and both squads ended with two corner kicks apiece.