Despite their best efforts, the men’s soccer team was not able to score a win this past Friday evening. Five weeks into their season, Colgate played their Patriot League opener against the preseason favorite, Loyola. Having lost the two games before, the Raiders entered Friday’s game with a vengeance, but just fell short.

With senior Peter Tappenden in goal, the Raiders began strong. Senior midfielder Jared Stroud saw some action early on in the game, with a shot and two corner kicks, although Loyola made it on the board first.  The Greyhounds took the lead at 21:57 with a goal from Patriot League Midfielder of the Year sophomore Barry Sharifi. Twenty-two minutes in, junior midfielder Tim Oberg claimed the only yellow-card given to Colgate, out of five total that were issued during the game.

The last twenty minutes of the first half were much more eventful for Colgate, with shots by sophomore midfielder Kentaro Morrison, junior forward Abdel Sanogo, senior midfielder Dugan Zier and Stroud. Though the Raiders put forth an

impressive offensive effort, they were unable to find the back of the net. At halftime, the Raiders were down 0-1. They headed into the locker room with the hopes of finding a way to turn the game around.

The start of the second half was uneventful for the Colgate offense, while the defensemen saw the ball much more on their end.  Thirteen minutes into the period, Tappenden dove to make an incredible save which resulted in a corner kick for Loyola.

The Raider offensive sought to redeem itself with more shots from junior forward Uyi Omorogbe, junior defender Aram Ouligian, and Stroud. Ouligian tallied his second goal of the season with a header off a throw-in from Sanogo to tie it up. Colgate and Loyola were tied at 1-1 with 10 minutes left in the second half. However, Loyola responded less than three minutes later, scoring again to reclaim the lead.

With less than seven minutes left in the game, the Raiders found themselves again down by one, with the scoreboard reading 2-1 Loyola. The Raiders were not ready to give up, making a strong effort in the last few minutes of the game. Oberg had a promising shot with four minutes left, but was unsuccessful, as was another corner by Stroud.  The Raiders fought until the last minute but were unable to tie it back up.

“It was a tough loss. We had worked hard as a team to tie the game up at one all – and to concede the last goal in the dying minutes was frustrating,” junior midfielder Matthew Glick said. “We’ve been in these situations before and know how to bounce back. We’ve had a good response in training and are looking forward to a big performance against Syracuse on Monday.”

On Monday evening, the men’s team suffered yet another tough loss against the nationally-ranked Syracuse Orange, which moved their overall record to 3-6-0 and 0-1-0 in the Patriot League. The men hope to bounce back this Friday evening when they take on Patriot League opponent Army in West Point, N.Y.

Contact Abby Waxler at [email protected]