The men’s soccer team found itself upon trying times this week, dropping consecutive one-goal games to both Darthmouth and New Hampshire. After losing to Darthmouth in double overtime, many of the Huskies were frustrated and heartbroken.
Although the Huskies scored a go-ahead goal in the first half, they couldn’t finish off the Big Green when they needed to. Juan Romero buried a goal past Northeastern goalie Sergio Saccoccio in the 108th minute to break the backs and minds of the Dogs.
Senior forward Nate Hougton couldn’t hide his feelings when being interviewed by phone Tuesday night.
“Oh, the Dartmouth game,” he said as he sighed heavily. “It’s really frustrating because we can get ahead of teams, we can play well but we just can’t finish anyone off. No matter how we outplay them, they end up scoring a few goals and winning. We get in situations where we slide or dive for a ball, and we just make the wrong decisions. We can’t get over the hump right now.”
Sophomore midfielder Joe Parrish echoed the sentiments of his senior leader.
“We’re a really young team. We can control the ball most of the game, and then it seems like we always make a stupid play and fail to finish off teams,” he said.
One play in particular in the second half seemed to be typical of NU’s recent play. Forward Bennie Prueske took a loose ball in Dartmouth’s box and dribbled past two defenders before ripping a shot just over the crossbar and out of play.
Head coach Ed Matz reflected the sentiment of his men after the game.
“I thought we played very well in the second half. We had more chances to end the game, but we just couldn’t capitalize,” he said.
Saturday’s conference opener against UNH didn’t fare much better for the Husky program either. Houghton reflected upon the next in a series of frustrations.
“The UNH game was hard to swallow, it felt like they had about five shots to our 15 or so, they buried three and won. We’re a very young team, with only two seniors and four returning starters from last year,” Houghton said. “Not many people have that experience and we just have to get over the hump before we can really be competitive.”
Although Prueske and Atha Kirkopoulos were able to notch goals for NU, the team couldn’t overcome a two goal effort by New Hampshire’s Brenden Hankard.
Despite playing on a team now with six losses, all of which were by one goal, both players were able to stay somewhat upbeat about the rest of the season.
“It’s not easy, but we’ve got to keep plugging,” Houghton said. “We’re 0-1 in conference now, but the real test is tomorrow. We play Hartford, they’ve got a lot of offense but not much D. We have a pretty solid defense and should be able to play well against them. It should be a good game.
“The good thing is we battle hard every game. There are lots of conference games left and a lot to look forward to for the rest of the season,” Parrish said.
NEXT OPPONENT: Hartford (3-6, 1-0) snapped a three-game losing skid by defeating Stony Brook 2-1 on Saturday night at Al-Marzook field in their America East opener. Brothers Asaf and Alon Lubezky each scored for the Hawks in the victory.
