Web Exclusive: Men’s Soccer, JMU vs American
October 1, 2009 • By Chris Petty, Contributing Writer
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The past four matches between the JMU Dukes and American have all gone into overtime and the fifth was to be no different. This time, however, unlike the past four, JMU would not come out on top, as the game ended after two overtimes in a 1 to 1 tie.
The Eagles and the Dukes have always been involved in close, tough games, and Wednesday night’s contest was more of the same. Coach Tom Martin didn’t seem too surprised by the tough play from American. “Well I think its a couple things. I think usually you have two good teams that a lot of the players know each other. This is probably a bigger game for American than it is for us because of the strength of our conference… It’s one of those non-football schools where maybe soccer is the biggest fall sport, and they treat it as such. They’re a very good team.”
The scoring opened up a mere 6 minutes into the game when junior Kieran Rice took the header from CJ Sapong and Paul Wyatt and blasted a volley into the top left corner. “CJ [Sapong] just did a good job getting up and then Paul [Wyatt] took a lot of the pace off the ball for me and it was just kind of instinct. I just took it down off the fly and picked my spot,” said Rice.
Despite the early goal, American controlled the ball for much of the half and managed to put a little pressure on the Dukes. Even with possession of the ball, American could not put one into the net until the second half.
With about 20 minutes remaining, American senior Nidhal Charfi took the pass from junior Daniel Shannon and eased the ball across to the far post to tie the score up at one. It was the first goal given up by JMU in the last five games which amounts to over 500 minutes of play.
The goal seemed to wake the Dukes up but a couple of mistakes prevented them from taking the lead. “We made it difficult on ourselves. We turned the ball over way too easily too many times,” said Coach Martin. “When a team like American wins those turnovers and gets you in transition it’s called chasing the game… You spend a lot more energy doing that than you do trying to possess the ball yourself.”
After a hard fought regulation, the teams headed into overtime tied at one. The Dukes barely missed ending the game 4 minutes into the first overtime when Billy Swetra barely missed tapping in a cross to the far post from CJ Sapong. Neither team, however, could break the tie and the game ended 1 to 1.
The Dukes next game on October 3 begins their conference schedule as they travel to take on the Delaware Blue Hens. Coach Martin doesn’t believe that the Dukes will need any motivation to get back into their winning ways in the conference season. “Well, I think it should be easy because it’s conference. It would be nice to have a conference game under our belt but with the game cancelled now we have to do it on the road… Yeah our non conference schedule was very good, yeah we did very well, but it’s all over, that’s [the] past.”
Contact Chris Petty at pettyct@jmu.edu
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