In the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament, the men’s soccer team (11-3-3) saw its season come to a screeching halt at the hands of the Montclair State Red Hawks (20-1-0), the eighth ranked team in the country. With the game’s only goal coming in the 18th minute of the first half, the Red Hawks withstood a second half surge by the Cardinals to advance to the Sectionals of the NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinals, who defeated Baruch College 5-0 in the first round of the tournament, looked to surpass last year’s finish after last year’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Messiah College in the second round of the NCAAs. Early on, however, Montclair State took advantage of the Cardinals’ momentary lapse of attention to the Hawks’ Bill Anthes in the Cardinal zone.
Anthes, who nearly got the Hawks on the board with a low driving shot that missed wide of the net, took a throw-in from the left sidelines across the box and hammered home the throw in with his right foot past a diving Matt Gnall ’08 for the game’s only goal. Anthes would come close to extending the Hawk lead later in the first half at the 1:49 mark, as his blasting shot from 25 yards out hit the top post which nearly gave the Hawks a two goal advantage.
The second half, however, saw a rejuvenated Cardinal offense relentlessly attack the suddenly complacent Montclair State team, as the Cards managed to take seven shots on goal over the final 45 minutes, but were unable to capitalize on their scoring chances. The Cards had a golden opportunity at the 79 minute mark when tri-captain Jared Ashe ’07 headed Julian Canzoneri’s ’07 corner kick on goal, but a Hawk defender cleared the header to preserve the Montclair State lead.
“The main thing was that in the second half, they dropped off most of their midfielders and dropped eight into their box,” Ashe said. “They knew we were the better possession team and had a better midfield, and were able to easily lay through their midfield and out wide, but it was tough in the box with so many of their guys in there. It was frustrating to have such control of the game and dominate the way we did and not get another goal.”
The Cards, who were fortunate to receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament after a loss in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament to Bates, started with seven consecutive wins and a 12-game undefeated streak, but saw their good fortunes disappear as they dropped three of their final five contests, including the final loss in the NCAAs.
Nonetheless, the squad had three players named to the All-NESCAC First Team: in Ashe, Matt Nevin ’09, and tri-captain Peter Glidden ’07. Sam Griswold ’08 also earned Second Team All-NESCAC honors, as he and Nevin led the team in goals and points, both with seven goals and 18 points.
“It was a shame to see our season come to an end to a team that we feel were better than,” said Dave Baharestani ’07.
While those four players were piling on the stats on offense, it was the defense, according to Ashe, that carried the team to success, especially early on in the season.
“We had the best defense in the conference,” Ashe said. “Our back four was incredible. [Justin] Mello ’08, Ross [Pemmerl] ’08, [Chris] Keeler ’07 and [David] Baharestani; those back four were the same as last year and came back with a huge responsibility make sure we were as good as we were last year back there. Top to bottom, we had so many players who could have made the All-NESCAC teams as well, including those four guys. Gnall had a great season, he deserved recognition as well.”
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