The VCU Rams hosted the Nike/Alltel Classic this weekend and split the pair of games, losing first to the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 1-2, and moving on to pick up a shutout victory over the Seton Hall Pirates.
On Friday, Aug. 25, the Rams went up against the Bulldogs, losing by a point. Alabama A&M attempted more shots 15-21, and got more shots-on-goal 7-9. VCU fouled up only once in the first half but lop-sided their stats when they accumulated ten fouls in the second half. AAMU had an even six fouls each half.
The first notable shot-attempt, AAMU’s Cornell Castle drove the ball into the area of the goal and chipped to Henry Kabeta, but Kabeta’s attempt was blocked heavily. In the 28th minute, Castle found his way to within five yards of the goal and kicked a shot that got blocked, but put goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra (Woodbridge/Osbourn Park) on the ground, so Mfana Futhi Bhembe took the opportunity to convert the rebound, scoring the first goal of
the game.
Later, there was an attempt on VCU’s goal by AAMU but Dykstra got his hand on the high shot, sending it over the goal. VCU came close to tying the game on a free kick, but the shot ricocheted off the top-right corner of the goal post.
Alabama A&M’s second point got on the board with 57 seconds left of the first half, when Mosito Ranko beat the keeper one-on-one.
In the second half, VCU took a few more shots, either missing the goal within a foot, or over-shooting, before substituting in midfielder Nate Burkey (Alexandria/
T.C. Williams).
Once again, AAMU tried to take advantage of a fallen goalie but bounced his shot off the right post.
Finally, Thomas Weingartner (Munich, Germany) head-butted the ball in past the goalie off of Matthijs Maruanaya’s (Alkmaar, Netherlands) incomplete shot with twelve minutes left in the last half.
Afterwards, head coach Tim O’Sullivan expressed frustration. He said, “We have a passionate group of people here, but they need to focus it on moving forward. We need to be ready to take a step forward in the game.” Thomas Weingartner also said he felt frustrated after the game, saying, “patience – we need patience if we want it to work after we’re down in the game.”
Sunday, Aug. 27 gave the Rams the ending they were starving for – a shutout victory over the Seton Hall Pirates, after securing two widely spread out points. The two schools took the same number of shots, but VCU outnumbered SHU 9-3 shots-on-goal. While SHU played a slightly neater game, in terms of fouls 19-12, they could not get deep enough into the VCU defense to score a goal.
Within the first seven minutes of the game, Evan Morris (Springfield/Byram Hills) picked up David Rosenbaum’s (Washington D.C./Woodrow Wilson) crossing pass from 40 yards out to score the first goal.
Towards the end of the first half, there were several shots made over VCU’s goal and a save in the last fifteen seconds.
In the opening of the second half, SHU bounced a close shot off the goalpost, and moments later, made another serious effort to get the ball in by means of a head-butt into the goalkeeper after knocking him down. If they had gotten those two shots in a row, the game may have gone into overtime, after Rosenbaum scored his head-shot off the corner kick by Weingartner.
Coach O’Sullivan’s commented after the game, saying, “The team had better organization this game; when they got down last time, they just sort of panicked out there.” When asked about his prospects for UNC Greensboro on Sept. 2, he said, “Well, we played a top-25 team this game, and UNC Greensboro is too. Seton Hall is a good team. They’ve lost their last two, but they’ll win some games.”
Thomas Weingartner said, “Patience did win over. If we play like this next game, then I think we will win.”