ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College men's soccer team fell to the Dutchmen of Union College, 2-1, Wednesday evening in a Liberty League showdown.
To open the game, the Raptors came out of the gate on fire.
In just the second minute,
John Weitzman (Armonk, NY) was called on to parry away a point-blank strike from
Nick Shenberger off a corner kick. On the ensuing corner, Weitzman was again needed, this time to stop a
Denis O'Shea header.
The Raptors had another point-blank chance stopped in the 15th minute, when Weitzman somehow got his foot on a close shot from
Jasper Shorter.
While Union certainly bent early, the team didn't break. In between Bard's early onslaught, the visitors were able to sneak in and grab the lead.
Yasin Dombayci (Clifton, NJ) scored in the 11th minute off a penalty kick and just six minutes later, Dan Cannon lofted a shot from the top of the penalty box into the top left corner of goal.Â
After that point however, it was all Bard.
Jake Cicero,
Isaac Rosenthal,
John Flynn and
Lucas Bourgine all had great chances to score, but Union's defense held firm. Finally in the 59th minute however, Bard broke through.
Hunter Davenport sent in a free kick from about 40 yards out to the top of the penalty box, where a Union defender was waiting to head the ball away.
Fortunately for Bard, the ball fell right to the feet of Bourgine, who collected it and took two steps toward goal, before using the outside of his foot to curve the ball around the charging keeper into the bottom left corner.
Over the final 30 minutes, the Raptors continued to produce better shots on goal, but just couldn't find the equalizer. In the end, Bard outshot Union, 11-7 in shots on goal and finished with more corners (7-5).Â
Taylor Bond recorded five saves for the Raptors, while Weitzman tallied 10 saves in the win.
Up next for Bard is Senior Day/ the season finale against Skidmore on October 28th at 2 p.m. Eight seniors will be honored pregame and you can follow that game right here via Live Stats and Live Video.
Â
