Rutgers Battles DePaul to Scoreless Tie
Oct 05 | Men's Soccer
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Senior goalkeeper Amir Haghshenas (Wyckoff, N.J.) posted three saves as Rutgers finished in a scoreless tie with DePaul, Saturday night at Yurcak Field. The Scarlet Knights (4-3-3, 1-2-2) held a 19-7 advantage in shots over the Blue Demons (3-4-3, 2-2-1), but could not finish their opportunities.
"We are disappointed we dropped two points," said head coach Bob Reasso. "I thought we had many opportunities to win the game. We were alone with the goalkeeper a few times, and we were alone with an empty net once but we hit it over the top. We're a young team and we're not finishing, unfortunately, and we paid for it. There are a lot of positives that we can take from tonight, we got a shutout, but it's disappointing that it's a one-point game and not a three-point game."
After a slow first half, Rutgers picked up the pace in the second stanza, finishing with 11 shots to DePaul's three. Late in the period RU had two good chances to score, first with 10 minutes to go when sophomore Dilly Duka (Montville, N.J.) split three defenders and passed the ball to senior Kevin McFadden (Midlothian, Va.), who was all alone on the right side. But Blue Demons keeper Brian Visser was up to the task, stopping McFadden's point-blank shot.
Five minutes later in the stanza, sophomore Aly Mazhar (Cairo, Egypt) kicked a laser shot from 40-yards out that hit the crossbar and bounced to McFadden, who was again alone in front of the goal. But the senior's shot sailed high and the game went to overtime.
After each team took only one shot in the first extra session, Rutgers again picked up the attack in the second overtime. With four minutes to play, Duka ran down a ball on the left side, driving past two defenders and sending a low liner from 10-yards out, but Visser was able to make the stop. Then with 15 seconds to go, Duka had another opportunity from 20-yards away, but his shot was blocked.
"I thought that DePaul came here trying to just get a point," said Reasso. "We tried to press them as much as possible but we didn't create enough good chances. They have a very good goalkeeper and he made six saves. If you make a keeper post six saves that means you're stretching them a little bit, but at the end of the day we should have won that game."
Rutgers will return to action on Oct. 8 at 4:00 p.m., when it travels to face Villanova in the first of five road-games.
"We will be on the road for five games, so maybe the team will play better away from home," said Reasso. "Sometimes young teams in their home stadium it's a little more intimidating at times, so maybe be on the road will let us cut loose a little bit."
