In what turned out to be their final game of the season, the Emory men’s soccer team fell short in a close match against the Yellowjackets of the University of Rochester (N.Y.), losing 1-0. The loss ended the Eagles’ season, who finished with a 10-5-1 record on the year, placing No. 4 in University Athletic Association (UAA) standings.
Playing in their fourth consecutive road match, the Eagles came into Saturday’s game knowing that their season could have very well been on the line. Both Emory and Rochester found themselves on the cusp of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and both knew that a win on Saturday would likely put them into the tournament field.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, for much of Saturday’s game, the ball seemed to be bouncing in favor of the Yellowjackets. The match’s first and only goal came in the 29th minute, when Rochester freshman defender Cristian Baltier’s long throw-in found it’s way through a scrum and into the Emory goal, giving Rochester the early 1-0 lead.
“There was a lot of commotion in the box, and it went through into the goal,” junior center defender Cody Gardiner said. “We had been moving the ball really well up until that point, but it was just an unlucky goal, and there wasn’t much we could do about it.”
Not 10 minutes later, Gardiner managed to score a spectacular bicycle kick into the left corner. However, the play was called offside, stripping away what would have been the tying goal for the Eagles.
The Eagles continued to apply pressure on the Yellowjackets, including a shot from senior midfielder Scott Haley, who was able to play in the final couple games of the season despite an early season knee injury that was expected to sideline him for the rest of his senior year.
“We weren’t expecting to get [Haley] back, given how serious the knee injury was, so being able to play on the field with him for the last few games meant a lot,” Gardiner said.
With the clock dwindling down on the season, the Eagles put together one final push, with two shots on goal coming in the final 10 seconds. Both were saved by Rochester sophomore goalkeeper Patrick Conway, who finished the game with five saves and a clean sheet. Conway’s efforts helped preserve the Yellowjackets’ 1-0 victory.
While the game’s result was disappointing, Head Coach Sonny Travis was pleased with his team’s effort and performance.
“As a coach, I’ve probably been [to Rochester] four or five times, and we have won a couple times, but this was the best I’ve seen us play at Rochester,” Travis said. “Our guys came ready to play Saturday night and really left it all on the field.”
NCAA tournament selection took place Monday. As many players suspected, the game against Rochester turned out to be a tournament play-in game, with Rochester managing to secure themselves a bid in the tournament and the Eagles finding themselves one of the first teams left out of the tournament field.
“We were definitely a bubble team,” Travis said. “We were still highly considered, but we needed a [win] in that last game.”
While their exclusion from the national tournament will sting for some time to come, the Eagles have a lot to be proud of this season. Ten wins is no small feat, and a few players contributed tremendous individual performances, including the likes of junior forward Jason McCartney and sophomore forward Moustafa Khattab. McCartney finished the year with seven goals and seven assists, while Khattab tallied five goals and four assists.
“Everyone is a little disappointed right now,” Gardiner said. “With the talent that we have, we were hoping to make the tournament and make a good run, but we had a lot of opportunities to give the young guys on our team some good experience this year, which will hopefully prepare us for next year.”
The Eagles will surely miss seniors Jason Andrejchak and Haley, but the team has a lot to look forward to next year when they will return almost the entirety of their current roster.
“The chemistry on our team and the hardworking mentality of our players really came through this year,” Travis said. “With the young group that we had, we had some growing pains, but other than the Brandeis [University] (Mass.) game [a 2-0 loss], we truly had a chance to win [every game]. We expect to bounce back from this setback, and I hope this lights a fire for our guys coming into 2017.”
