HAMDEN — It was a sunny day under Sleeping Giant, and the heat was beating down on Quinnipiac and La Salle men’s soccer teams, as the Bobcats fought to a scoreless draw against the Explorers Saturday.
This was the Bobcats’ first tie this season, moving their record to 2-3-1.
Quinnipiac started the game slow, without a single shot on net until the eighth minute of the first half. After that, shots began to rain for the Bobcats as they outshot La Salle 13-10.
“Today, I thought we had some good looks, certainly not as clean as the looks we had a couple games ago,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa said. “But, scoring goals is the most difficult thing to do in this game and today was a little more difficult than most.”
Despite being unable to score, the Bobcats played a strong defensive game, keeping the shutout alive for junior goalkeeper Karl Netzell.
“(Had) a few scary moments there and in transition where we’re pushing to try to get a goal in that transitional moment,” Da Costa said. “They probably could have caught us once or twice. But I think we defended the second ball pretty well. The first ball probably could have done a better job of, but recovery defense in those moments was pretty good to keep the clean sheet.”
Saturday’s contest was extremely physical throughout, with Quinnipiac and La Salle combining for eight fouls, one of which resulted in a yellow card assessed to Explorers’ graduate midfielder Andrew Rosenbaum.
This trend followed into the second half where the physicality was double that of the first. Quinnipiac and La Salle combined for 13 fouls with seven against the Bobcats and six against the Explorers.
In addition to the fouls in the second half, there were a slew of bookings.
In the 56th minute, Quinnipiac’s senior forward Pol Messalles received a yellow card. 16 minutes later, La Salle’s sophomore defender Tobi Osoba received a yellow card, and only a minute after, Quinnipiac’s first-year defender Juan Hernandez received a yellow card as well.
Lastly, La Salle’s graduate midfielder Nevin Baer was given an instant red card after hitting a Quinnipiac player in the head after a play, forcing the Explorers to play with 10 men for the remainder of the game.
Da Costa chalks up some of that physicality to the grueling heat on the turf field.
“It’s the conditions, you know, lend themselves to that. It’s twenty minutes out there trying to cover that ground, you’re gonna be fatigued,” Da Costa said.
Another source of physicality came from the frustration with game officials. Players on both teams could be heard arguing with calls that could have benefitted their side.
“I think you just saw two tired teams that were fighting, trying to win every inch, and trying to put the team in a positive position,” Da Costa said.
But sometimes, simply fighting and being physical in a matchup will not change the outcome of the game. That was the case on Saturday, with the game ending in a tie.
“It wasn’t easy,” Da Costa said. “It wasn’t an easy draw. Both teams fought the same way. It’s a hard-fought draw. Both of us probably think we should have won, but on the day, I think the draw is probably fair.”
