Stony Brook, NY ? The University of Hartford men's soccer team played to a scoreless tie to open the America East portion of the 2007 schedule. The Hawks, who are winless over their last three outings, are now 5-3-2 overall and 0-0-1 in conference play.
“Mission accomplished,” said head coach Dan Gaspar. “Our objective was to not concede a goal and we did that. We are coming back to Hartford with a minimum of a point and that is key because if you can come home with at least a point and then pick up three at home, it can be a successful season. Tonight's game was a well fought battle, typical of the America East conference, I am proud of my team and now we prepare for our next opponent, Binghamton”
For the game, the Hawks were out shot by a 14-8margin with Hartford keeper, Matt Glaeser, forced to make a season best of eight saves, two in the first half, three in the second half and a pair in the two overtime periods.
The Seawolves capitalized on their possessions in the second half taking seven shots, compared to three for Hartford, but suffered three offside's calls. In the first 45 minutes, the Hawks took two shots and Stony Brook three, while being whistled for six offside's infractions.
The Hawks leading scorer, Andreas Blamo led the team in shots, finishing with three in the game. Daniel Antunez followed him with two, while three other players all took one shot. The Seawolves had a balanced attack with six players all taking two shots and two players taking one each. Stony Brook keeper, Dawid Ditrich, finished with no saves on the night.
The Seawolves had a pair of shots within the first 10:30 of the game, the first coming from Peter Rakovic was saved by Glaeser, but led to a corner kick, off of which, Maurice Brown took his first shot of the game off a header, which went high. The Hawks didn't record their first shot until the 30th minute when Kevin O'Donnell Shaw put the first shot over the crossbar.
Coming out of the intermission, the Seawolves again attacked early with two shots, 30 seconds apart, during the 61st and 62nd minutes. The first shot came from Mark Secko and was sent over the net, but the second led to a Glaeser save and came from the head of Mahamadou Simpara. The Hawks best attempt came in the 72nd minute when Blamo set a shot, which began as a corner kick from Gary Muir, wide right.
Hartford opened the first overtime with an early shot from Blamo going wide, but that led to a barrage of Seawolves attempts. The first three Stony Brook shots all led to Glaeser saves, coming during the fifth, sixth and seventh minutes. Stony Brook's final shot of the first overtime came with five seconds to play and went over the top of the net.
The Hawks controlled the tempo for the majority of the second overtime period, holding Stony Brook without a shot. The first Hawks attempt came seven minutes in from Jamie Thomas and went wide. The Hawks final shot came from Antunez with 16 seconds left to play and also went wide.
The men's soccer team returns home to take on Binghamton in the conference opener at Al-Marzook Field on Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m.
