[media-credit id=2278 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]In one of the most exhilarating games of the season, the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team beat Manhattan 2-1 in double overtime on Senior Day at the Quinnipiac Soccer Field Saturday afternoon.

With this win, the soccer team has now won the past five games they have played, showing the MAAC the type of team they are.

The game started and ended with a very electric and intense atmosphere. Both teams were very physical and aggressive in the style of their play, as well as on each other. In the game, there were 31 fouls called between both teams, as well as four yellow cards called between the two teams.

Though the first half did not having any scoring, it was full of action. Plenty of shots between both, some on goal and some were that were not as accurate as the players wanted to, with Quinnipiac having 16 shots to Manhattan’s 11 shots. Going into halftime, the game was still anyone’s for the taking, the team’s just needed to fix their mistakes and go into the second half with the demeanor to win.

In the beginning of the second half, you could see the Bobcats flip that switch. They were acting and playing with more intensity and more aggression than in the first half. They were poking and intercepting the ball away from the Jasper players more, hounding the Jasper players to force turnovers and had crisper footwork and passes.

The game finally had its first scorer on senior defenseman Derek Parker’s first goal of the season, breaking the tie and putting the Bobcats in front with 30 minutes left in the second half.

Parker was more than happy that he got his first goal of the season at that moment.

“It was one of those moments you can’t dream up as a kid,” Parker said. “You never think that this is going to happen and it does. It was great to put us up one to nothing.”

Not long after, the Jaspers got a goal of their own in an unusual way. The Jaspers defense forced a Quinnipiac player to shoot the ball into their own goal.

Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa explained that this goal was unintentional and they were going to have to live with scoring on themselves.

“It was a difficult play for a defender to deal with, with the ball over the shoulder and pressure coming,” Da Costa said. “I think he was just trying to clear it out of bounds and get a corner and you can’t play that ball to the goalkeeper because the pressure is going to be on top of the keeper’s head. It was really unfortunate that it happened and unfortunately, that happens. You just put your head down and and keep looking for the second goal.”

[media-credit id=2278 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]From that point forward, the emphasis was to get good looks and punch the ball in to the net. Both teams were getting really good looks, but were unsuccessful in getting the ball into the net, eventually putting the game into overtime.

In overtime, both teams were still trying to get that perfect look set up to win the game. In overtime, senior forward Rashawn Dally was setting up his fellow players to get the best shot possible. At the end of the overtime, the game was still tied at one, putting the game into double overtime.

In double overtime, Dally was continuing what he did in the first overtime. Though he had a shot that missed the net, he set up the game winning score for junior forward Eamon Whelan. Dally was driving in to score and tried to put the game away, but was blocked by Manhattan’s junior goalie Marcellin Gohier. The way that Gohier deflected the ball was put in perfect position for Whelan to score the game winning goal.

As the Bobcats host the Siena Saints on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m., Da Costa emphasized that they have everything that they need, now he needs his players to recover.

“We’re in the portion of the season where it’s all about recovery,” Da Costa said. “We need to just make sure our players are doing OK and treat the injuries that are necessary.”