With the way the men’s soccer team is playing, the Bobcats don’t want to change a thing – especially where they play.
Quinnipiac won its fifth straight home game Sunday, 2-1, over Robert Morris at Quinnipiac Soccer Field.
“We want to continue our momentum and continue to improve as a team,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa said. “I think we’ve seen flashes of that every game and things start to get a little bit better and a little more organized.”
Philip Suprise scored once and helped set up Matt Rothbart’s game-winning penalty kick in the 79th minute, as the Bobcats (5-4, 3-0 Northeast Conference) won their fifth game out of six.
Suprise was one-on-one with a Colonial defender and drew contact in the box, which led to a penalty kick. Da Costa gave Rothbart the PK opportunity.
“It was a great finish by Matt to step up under that type of pressure,” Da Costa said.
Rothbart took the shot and sent it past Robert Morris goalkeeper Toba Bolaji, who made five saves, for the game-winner.
“At the end of the day it’s just about being composed and having the composure to bury the opportunity that you have,” Da Costa said. “He just struck it excellent, it had a great swerve on it with a little finesse to the outside there, and the goalkeeper didn’t have a chance.”
Suprise, who has a team-high 10 points, saw a chance to create a scoring opportunity when he saw just one defender in between him and the goalie.
“They’ve got some pretty physical defenders,” Suprise said. “It was going through my mind too that I was one on one with this guy, I was faster than him and if I just push it by him then maybe I’ll get contact. I kind of flaunted it a little bit, took a little dive and we got the PK and Matt put it away, so it works out in the end.”
Of the nine Bobcat games, eight of them have been decided by just one goal. Last season, Quinnipiac went 2-8 in one-goal games, including two that went overtime and one that resulted in a penalty kick in the 89th minute.
“It’s unfortunate for Robert Morris, but we’ve been on the back end of those type of games and it’s part of football,” Da Costa said.
Suprise scored in the 41st minute from a pass by Hakon Aarseth when he sent a line drive into the left corner of the net. Suprise said he knew the ball was going in as soon as it left his foot, and, with a straight face, the Milwaukee native did an Aaron Rodgers imitation for a celebration.
“I was actually working on those kind of shots with coach all week and I’m just getting the comfort level back and there’s the same situation I’ve been doing with coach, so I felt comfortable when I hit it,” Suprise said.
Prince Samuels scored for the Colonials (4-6-1, 0-4) in the ninth minute when he sent a shot into the upper-right corner of the net past Quinnipiac goalkeeper Borja Angoitia.
Angoitia only recorded two saves on the afternoon, but none bigger than when he dove to his right in the 81st minute to stop a header from Miro Cabrilo from tying the game.
The Bobcats are undefeated in conference play and have a tough schedule ahead, playing four straight road games against NEC teams which are all in the top-four in the conference, starting with conference-leading Fairleigh Dickinson (7-2-2, 3-0-1) on Sunday.
“We’re going to enjoy the next couple of days and take advantage of being 3-0 and appreciate what that means,” Da Costa said. “Until [Sunday], we’re just going to enjoy the moment. It’s a reward for all the work we’ve been putting in.”
