Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
The Roadrunners looked to win their first ECAC Tournament game since Nov. 12, 2005 when they faced the College of Staten Island in the first round of the 2016 ECAC Men’s Soccer Tournament.
However, the Roadrunners went on to lose a very low-scoring affair with the College of Staten Island by a final score of 1-0.
Ramapo’s 13th-year head coach DJ Pinton knew that the Roadrunners needed to be the better team in all phases of the game during their preparation for last Saturday’s game.
“We knew they had some very close results against some common opponents with the three NJAC teams and Arcadia, all very close. They had the same result against Arcadia as we did. They had a similar type result against Rowan, which gives a good parameter that we knew it was going to be a good team,” said Pinton. “We just had to come out knowing that we had to be better across the board and come out with some good energy after the layoff of a couple weeks of not playing.”
The two teams remained scoreless during the first 12 minutes of the game, but then the Roadrunners fouled to force a penalty kick opportunity for the College of Staten Island.
In the 13th minute of the game, second-year midfielder Ali Fares cashed in on the penalty kick opportunity for the first and only score of the game to give the College of Staten Island a 1-0 lead.
The play would end up being the difference in the game as that was all that the College of Staten Island needed to advance to the next round in the tournament.
The Roadrunners had the slight advantage overall in the shot department as they outshot the College of Staten Island 11-8.
Also, the Roadrunners had a slight advantage in shots on goal as they maintained a 5-4 edge in that category.
The College of Staten Island held advantages in saves and corners, where it had 5-3 and 5-4 advantages respectively.
Rookie forward/midfielder Joseph Fala said that his biggest takeaway from the game was that the Roadrunners needed to have a more positive attitude.
“Keep our heads; try to be more positive on the field with everyone and try to work as a team and get a result,” said Fala.
Second-year midfielder Malik Lopes felt that the season had some positivity although there were some minor mistakes that needed to be cleaned up for next year.
“We were doing good at first, we had very high heads. We had some positive things going out, but it was just some minor things that we just had to clean up that we just didn’t take care of on and off the field; which led to us not having the season we wanted to have,” said Lopes. “But we’re just going to look to put that behind us and just work until next season and try to at least make the playoffs and at least try to work our way to NCAAs.”
With the loss, the Roadrunners wrapped up the 2016 season with a 10-5-3 overall record, and as a result, 2016 will mark the first time that the Roadrunners have had a winning overall record since 2010 when they went 11-3-4 overall.
Sophomore forward Ryan Campbell led the Roadrunners in goals for the second straight year, scoring 12.
Junior goalie Ryan Sprague had a .790 save percentage.
Additionally, the Roadrunners had a 2-4-3 record against NJAC opponents in 2016, a 6-2-3 record at home, a 2-3 record on the road and a 2-0 record at neutral fields.
Lastly, in 2016, the Roadrunners earned their 13th bid to the ECAC Tournament overall as a program, and it was their first trip to the ECAC Tournament since 2012.
pmcguire@ramapo.edu
