Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa cast a grim gaze toward the scoreboard as the time expired and the scoreboard displayed zeroes. It wasn’t a loss, but it certainly wasn’t what he was looking for.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s soccer team played the Robert Morris Colonials to a scoreless draw at the Quinnipiac Soccer Field on Friday afternoon. It was the fifth tie of the season through eight games for the Bobcats.
“This tie feels like a loss, to be honest,” Da Costa said. “It’s a team that’s coming in here 0-9, and maybe their play isn’t reflective of their record, and it’s a team that we should have put away.”
Robert Morris played a better first half of the two teams recording 13 shots compared to the Bobcats’ eight. The Colonials’ best chance came in the 34th minute when sophomore David Torrance missed an opportunity to put the Colonials on top. After receiving a pass just inside the 18-yard box, Torrance was one-on-one with senior goalkeeper Freddy Hall. He moved around him and took the shot from the right side of the box. Hall was originally out of position, but recovered in time, sprinted back to his goal and cleared the ball off the goal line with his foot.
The second half featured a more determined Bobcats team, as they outshot the Colonials 10-8. Juniors Dwayne Mars and Nick Pelicaen both had scoring opportunities to put the Bobcats ahead. But the best opportunity to score came late in the first half when junior Dominic Adams saw Pelicaen charging. Pelicaen moved around a defender just outside the box, but his shot sailed just wide.
The Bobcats turned it up another notch in the two overtime periods and pushed for the win. They outshot the Colonials 5-1, with Durval Pereira and Matthew Rothbart having good looks, but couldn’t find the back of the net.
Hall picked up his fourth shutout of the season, and finished the game with six saves. All six came in regulation, none in overtime. His counterpart, freshman Toba Bolaji, also had six saves for the visiting Colonials. Five of those were in regulation and one of them in overtime.
For the game, the Bobcats recorded 23 shots compared to 22 for the Colonials.
“We’re still undefeated, that’s the positive, and we’re still undefeated in Conference play, that’s another positive,” Da Costa said. “But the ties are starting to pile up and we lost two points today instead of gaining a maximum of three. So we’ll take the one point but we’re not happy about it, by any means.”
