HAMDEN — Lions, Bobcats and soccer oh my! While this is a parody of the historic line in “The Wizard of Oz,” it’s what fans witnessed at the Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse stadium Friday afternoon.
The Bobcats were the ones skipping down the yellow brick road, defeating the Lions 2-0 in their first home game of the season.
“We’re at home, it’s where we’re most comfortable and we play well at home,” senior midfielder Drew Seguro said. “So we just got to come in and play our game and the results will come.”
For a team two years removed from a 10-0-1 home record, the Bobcats showed their comfort playing on their home field.
They jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 28th minute when junior midfielder Alex Miller dropped a perfect pass to Seguro who finished past junior goalkeeper Dean Kelliher.
“Miller did it all,” head coach Eric Da Costa said. “It’s a great run with a ton of pace in behind it, Miller takes a great first touch, through the duress really closed in behind the back line, and gets a little bit of time, I thought (Seguro) did a tremendous job to finish that.”
Just four minutes later, senior midfielder Filip Kangeman curled the ball into the top left corner, giving the Bobcats a 2-0 lead within 32 minutes.
“If you can put a team (behind) right away, and you just have all the confidence,” Miller said. “With (Columbia), I think we were on them right from the beginning, the pressure, the pressure after we put the second one, it’s just like, we keep putting the pressure, and that’s all we need to do.”
But what about the other 58 minutes? It was controlled by the Bobcats’ defense.
From the opening kickoff to the 82nd minute, the Lions were only able to muster one shot on goal. The Bobcats dictated the pace featuring the play of captain Noe Cabezas. The senior midfielder was able to control the pace playing as the center defensive midfielder between the defenders and the midfielders.
When the ball got past Cabezas, it was the passing ability of the backline with junior defender Luke Schierenbeck, senior defender Pol Mesalles and captain Karl Netzell that made the difference.
“I feel comfortable about the ball at my feet,” Netzell said. “I’d say it’s one of my strengths as a goalkeeper. My whole life I’ve played like that, and that’s how we want to play. We just, we don’t just want to move the ball up. We want to play out of the press.”
The Bobcats now endure five consecutive home games to finish out their non-conference schedule.
“It feels good. You know, we feel comfortable at home,” Netzell said. “This is our place, and we’re gonna defend it till we die. So I think it’s good for us. This gave us some confidence, we can keep performing well and win games.”
The Bobcats‘ next matchup will be against St. Bonaventure, who finished last season with a 6-7-4 record and a 2-5-1 record in the Atlantic 10 conference.
“We gotta recover. Get a good week of practice underneath us, and just get ready to go for next Saturday,” Seguro said.
