Men’s soccer comes up short against familiar foe

The men’s soccer team began its 2009 conference schedule against a familiar foe Saturday night.

Both teams made their way onto the Sports Backers Stadium turf under a dark overcast sky and intermittent rain showers.

VCU lost to George Mason University for the second straight year, getting shutout 1-0 by the number one team in the Colonial Athletic Association preseason rankings. The Patriots won 2-1 last year at home, in Fairfax.

“We came out to compete with them and I think when it comes to competing with them we were able to match them, but we were just unlucky,” said VCU midfielder Owusu Seykere (Suame-Kumasi, Ghana). “We still have our heads up though and hope the next game will be better.”

Early pressure from the VCU attack nearly resulted in a goal when they caught the Mason keeper out of position on a cross. Patriot defender Mike Foss protected the goalmouth though, heading away the shot.

The Patriots narrowly missed on a scoring chance in the 17th minute when Mason’s Draymond Washington attempted to drop an arching header over the VCU keeper. Gabriel Rodriguez (Guatemala City, Guatemala) made a great save on the shot, however, stretching to full extension and tapping the ball over the crossbar.

Mason’s Ernesto Marquez caught the Ram defense off guard when he made a run on goal later in the first half. Rodriguez charged the ball, dropping to the ground in an attempt to take away possible shot angles and possession. Marquez shot ricocheted off the VCU keeper and trickled out of bounds.

Marquez dropped the resulting Patriot corner kick in front of the goal, where Anthony Han redirected it with a header to Eric Zuehsow. After controlling the ball, Zuehshow powered a shot past the VCU keeper from seven yards out. That score in the game’s 40th minute would become the game winner.

Another scoring opportunity presented itself to the Rams just before the halftime whistle. VCU was awarded an indirect kick just off the edge of the Patriot goal box, after a Mason player passed the ball back to keeper Sean Kelley, who mistakenly picked it up.

The Rams’ Seykere tapped the kick back to James Neighbour (Liphook, England), whose shot couldn’t find its way past the Mason wall.

The second half provided more physical back and forth play, as both teams continued fighting to establish a consistent offensive flow in the game.

Midway through the second half, the Rams’ Seykere played a beautiful through ball to Alberto Fonseca (San Jose, Costa Rica), who then found Romario Blandon (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) cutting into the box. Blandon’s shot narrowly missed, however, flying just wide of the right post.

VCU nearly tied the game with two minutes remaining when Seykere crossed the ball into the box to Philipp Daldrup (Bremen, Germany), who knocked the ball past the Mason keeper. The linesman flag was raised for offsides however, causing the goal to be called back.

The Rams play next in a road matchup at the University of Virginia. The game is on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. in Charlottesville.