Forced to travel for post-season play, No.
6 Northeastern felt more comfortable visiting
Sports Backers Stadium for its first-round
match than anywhere else it played this season.
The Huskies out-dueled the Rams to a 3-1
win on Oct. 19 for their only road victory of
the season.
No. 3 VCU exacted revenge with a 3-1 win of
its own in the CAA Quarterfinals on Tuesday,
which broke a two-match losing streak to the
Huskies in the Rams’ final home contest of
the year. The Rams are riding a seven-match
winning streak after having not lost since they
last faced the Huskies. The team outscored
opponents 24-4 during that span.
Freshman Jorit Loehr (Bremen, Germany)
put the black and gold on top 1-0 in the
14th minute with his seventh goal of the
season. Owusu Sekyere (Suame-Kumasi,
Ghana/Opoku Ware) lofted the ball in front
of the goal, where it bounced unattended for
a moment before Loehr sent it to the back of
the net. Northeastern goalkeeper Mahmoud
Talaat put himself out of position early and
was unable to recover and make a play for
the save.
The Huskies pulled even 20 minutes later.
Matthew Laning dribbled down the left side
and crossed to Greg Kilkenny, who headed the
ball past junior goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra
(Woodbridge/Osbourn Park) from point blank,
four yards away.
The match entered halftime tied 1-1, just
as it did the last time these teams met. But
this time it was the Rams who posted two
second-half goals en route to the win.
In the 55th minute, junior Dirk Dittrich
(Stuttgart, Germany) gave VCU its second
lead of the match. Senior Sven Meusch’s
(Cologne, Germany) throw-in landed in front
of the net and deflected off junior Peer Jaekel
(Bremen, Germany), when a sliding Dittrich
punched the ball in from five yards out for
the go-ahead goal.
Sekyere, who finished with a match-high
five shots, capped his productive night with
10:12 remaining. The sophomore launched
a shot from 25 yards and was denied by
Talaat, only to collect his second assist of
the night when Meusch controlled Talaat’s
misplayed save and scored on a header from
five yards.
Northeastern was done-in by a massive
void in scoring chances. After being out-shot
by the Huskies 7-4 in the first half, the Rams
responded with a 16-3 advantage in the second
half. Dykstra was hardly tested and did not
even have to record a save all night.
VCU stands at 12-5-2
overall and 8-4 in the CAA,
despite a 1-4 start to its
conference schedule.
The Rams’ win advances
them to the conference semi-
finals, while 9-9-1 Northeastern
ends its season. VCU will face No. 2 Old
Dominion Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Virginia
Beach Sportsplex. The Monarchs narrowly beat
the Rams 2-1 in double-overtime when the
rivals last faced off Oct. 12 in Norfolk.
“We have to execute,” said senior Matthijs
Maruanaya (Alkmaar, Netherlands/Willem
Blaeu), referring to how VCU must play against
Old Dominion. “We thought they were lucky
they beat us the first time.”