The No. 12 Montclair State University Red Hawks men’s soccer team and the Milwaukee School of Engineering played to a 1-1 draw on a crisp Friday evening at MSU Soccer Park.
The Red Hawks started off strong by taking three of the game’s first four shot attempts. In the 23rd minute, Milwaukee School of Engineering earned the game’s first shot on goal when one of their players was played in one-on-one with Montclair State’s freshman goalkeeper Alex Velasquez and Velasquez rushed out to make the save.
The visitors got on the scoreboard first when a corner kick was headed out of Montclair State’s 18 yard box. The loose ball was struck by Milwaukee’s Michael Rohrman into the low right corner of the net to give Milwaukee a 1-0 lead at minute 36.
Right before halftime, Milwaukee nearly doubled their lead when a corner kick again was not cleared properly by Montclair State. A loose ball came out to the edge of the 18 yard box where Milwaukee’s Steven Thomas rattled it off the bar with a long distance effort.
Montclair State didn’t start the first half with the right level of energy, but that would all change in the second half. The Red Hawks found the tying goal in the 63rd minute, as Osbin Mendez sent in a cross that was headed towards goal by Thomas Piazza. After Milwaukee School of Engineering cleared that first attempt, Alfredo Rojas served in another cross that was headed into the low left corner of the net by Ian Chesney.
The momentum didn’t stay with Montclair State long however as Velasquez had to be called upon to make a save in the 70th minute on a one-on-one with a Milwaukee player. Montclair State made a push in stoppage time, earning a corner kick which was dropped by the goalkeeper. This led to a nervy moment for the away team but the ball was cleared away before a Red Hawk could get to it. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
After the game, head coach Todd Tumelty described what made things difficult in the first half for his team.
“We were kind of moving the ball too slowly, weren’t generating any balls into Salem [Ellisy] and Andre [Shelton] up top. We pride ourselves on getting the first ball, winning the second ball and then going with energy and we were kind of just slowly moving the ball around the field. So, in the second half we decided to change tactics a little bit and get some more balls forward and get some more players underneath the forwards.”
When the second half began, Montclair State played like a different team, one reinvigorated and Coach Tumelty touched on what made that happen.
“Yeah, I think that’s just it. We moved a couple more people up the field, essentially we kind of flipped our pivot, we were playing balls into our strikers feet and kind of trying to run off it. I think also energy and work rate, right, when the ball went into the back, instead of just swinging it around the back we were playing balls north and south and not east and west. So it was good.”
The Red Hawks’ next game is against Chapman at MSU Soccer Park and kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
“We have a very tough schedule, we made it that way. I think that guys know that but they also know that we’re not clicking at the moment so were working on it and once we click its going to be back to normal but I think it doesn’t help when you’re playing some of the best teams and you got to try and make it work. I think it’ll come but it’s just going to take some time.”
Anthony Paradiso 