September 26, 2009

VCU DROPS CAA OPENER TO GEORGE MASON, 1-0
Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Commonwealth University men’s soccer team opened the 2009 Colonial Athletic Association slate on Saturday evening with a tough 1-0 loss to George Mason University at Sports Backers Stadium.

“It was a good college game,” said VCU head coach Tim O’Sullivan.  “Often when it’s a good game, there are little things that really decide it.  A few things were unfortunate, especially on the corner kick where we had some confusion on defense, but you have to give them credit for keeping us off the board.”

Each squad battled for possession, creating numerous scoring opportunities in a match where VCU held an 11-9 advantage in shots.

Mason nearly got on the board in the 17th minute but a header from Draymond Washington was blocked over the net by VCU keeper Gabriel Rodriguez (Guatemala City, Guatemala).

Mason continued to pressure the VCU defense and got on the board in the 40th minute in what proved to be the game winning goal.  Ernesto Marquez sent a corner kick into the box where Anthony Han headed the ball to Eric Zuehsow on the left side of the net.  Zuehsow handled the deflection and hit a strike from seven yards out to put the Patriots on top, 1-0.

VCU had an opportunity to get on the board just before the half.  A Mason defender tapped the ball to keeper Sean Kelley in the 44th minute.  Kelley corralled the pass and as a result, VCU was awarded an indirect free kick in the box.  Owusu Seykere (Suame-Kumasi, Ghana) passed to James Neighbour (Liphook, England), whose shot was blocked by the Mason defensive wall from three yards out.

In the 64th minute Seykere passed to Alberto Fonseca (San Jose, Costa Rica) on a streak through the middle of the Mason defense.  Fonseca found a cutting Romario Blandon (Tegucigalapa, Honduras) left of the box but he fired a shot wide right of the goal.

The Rams nearly tied the score inside two minutes to go in regulation but an unfortunate offside call kept VCU off the board.  Seykere sent a cross in front of the net to Philipp Daldrup (Bremen, Germany), who fired a shot past Kelley, but was caught just in front of the Mason defense when the pass left Seykere’s foot.

“Overall, it’s a tough one to swallow in terms of results because I thought that the way we played and the effort we gave was very positive, and probably as good as we have done this year,” O’Sullivan added.