Men's Soccer Suffers First Loss of 2011 as Fordham Edges Hawks, 1-0

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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford men's soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss on Saturday evening when the Fordham Rams escaped out of Alumni Stadium with a 1-0 win. The setback is the first for the Hawks (1-1) this season while Fordham remains unbeaten with a mark of 2-0.

Fordham did not waste time to light up the scoreboard as Phil Ferrantello found the back of the net in the sixth minute of action. The senior tracked down a corner kick from the left side off the boot of midfielder John McHugh and headed it into the upper right corner, beating Hartford keeper Luke Citriniti to take the early 1-0 advantage.

After finishing even in the shots column at the halftime break with three looks apiece, the Hawks turned up the attack out of the intermission and bombarded the Rams with eight second half attempts, two of which were on target.

The Hawks saw several opportunities to net the equalizer in the final 30 minutes, with one of the best attempts coming off the foot of sophomore transfer Anthony Santaga. The striker got ahead of the Rams' defense and after finding himself wide open in the box, rifled a low shot from the right side just wide left of the goalpost.

Less than 15 minutes later, junior James Stamopoulos sent a ball inside of the box on a free kick, finding the head of Patrick Boucher. Boucher's shot sailed high to the right corner but Fordham Keeper Ryan Meade swatted the ball away to record his fourth and final save of the match.

Following an impressive save by Citriniti on a direct kick that would have doubled the visiting team's lead, Ryan Wahab and Omar Tall each had looks at putting the game-tying tally on the scoreboard. Wahab's attempt in the 87th minute just sailed over the crossbar while with just 15 seconds remaining in regulation, Tall made contact on a corner kick scramble inside of the box but his shot also lofted over the goal.

Fordham finished the match with five shots and dominated corner kicks by an 8-3 margin. Citriniti finished with a pair of saves while Meara needed four rejections to earn the clean slate.

The Hawks will be back to action on Tuesday, September 6 when they travel down the road to face the neighboring Central Connecticut. The Hawks and Blue Devils kick off the derby from Willowbrook Park at 7:00 p.m.

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