Saints Fall to No.6 Hobart, 2-1
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Sept. 27: After tying in the regular season and then losing to St. Lawrence in the 2007 Liberty League semifinals, the No. 6 Hobart Statesmen proved at least part of 2008 would play out a bit differently as they defeated the St. Lawrence University men's soccer team 2-1 in conference action on Saturday afternoon in Geneva, NY.
The Saints fall to 6-4-0 overall and endure their first Liberty League loss of the season as they currently stand at a 1-1-0 mark in the conference, while the nationally ranked Statesmen keep their unbeaten record intact as they improve to 9-0-0 and a 2-0-0 Liberty League record.
The home team found their way to the net first at the beginning of the 20th minute, as the ball went out of bounds and Hobart's Matt Geswell threw it back into play. Teammate Philipp Schoeniger touched it, sending the ball to the head of Dan Riso, who drove it in between the posts past St. Lawrence keeper and co-captain Emilio Coletta (Montreal, QUE/Marianapolis College) for the Statesmen's first goal of the game.
At the 31:49 mark, Hobart's Tyler Webster tallied what would eventually be the game winner, his third of the season. Teammate Clancy Purcell threaded the ball to Webster, who was pressing up against at St. Lawrence offsides trap, setting him up for a breakaway that resulted in the Statesmen's 2-0 lead.
St. Lawrence quickly gained possession after the goal and stormed into Hobart's defensive end, where the Statesmen were fouled, giving the Saints a free kick. The restart sailed just in front of the goal, where the players scrambled for possession but St. Lawrence senior forward Kiel Dwyer (Warwick, RI/Toll Gate H.S.) got his foot to it first, where he blasted it past Hobart keeper Pete Van Dellon to cut the home team's lead in half, the score read 2-1 in favor of the Statesmen.
Hobart never relinquished their lead, as the evenly-matched teams played even in the second half of the game, with Hobart holding a slight edge in shots (8-7) but both teams tallying three shots on goal. St. Lawrence put a lot of pressure on the home squad in the final minutes, but were unable to capitalize on a few opportunities that would have forced overtime. St. Lawrence held a 4-3 edge in corner kick opportunities, two of those coming in the second half.
Van Dellon had six saves for Hobart, while Coletta tallied three for the Saints.
St. Lawrence will return to action next weekend, as they travel down the road to North Country rival Clarkson University in another Liberty League match. The game is scheduled to begin at 2:00pm on Saturday, October 4th in Potsdam, NY.