Box Score
In an exciting back-and-forth battle, the New York University men's soccer team played visiting #10 Carnegie Mellon University to a scoreless draw on Sunday, October 17, at the College of Staten Island.
The tie helped the Violets (8-2-3, 2-0-2) claim sole possession of first place in the University Athletic Association (UAA), as Washington University – the other squad with seven points entering the day – lost in overtime at the University of Rochester. NYU now sits alone atop the UAA (which featured four nationally ranked squads in this week's polls), with eight points and three Association games remaining.
“It's great to be at the top of the table,” said NYU head coach
Joe Behan. “We were pleased to get four out of six points this weekend against two formidable squads.”
While NYU could not find the back of the net as it did against #7 Emory University on Friday, the Violets held the potent Tartans (9-2-1, 1-2-1), who have been ranked as high as #2 in Division III this season, off the scoreboard, as well.
NYU had several quality opportunities to score. In the 17th minute
Ethan Evans sent a great long ball over the top to
Paolo Luciano, and Luciano ripped a shot to the near post. But Carnegie keeper Zach Stahl made the difficult stop.
Eight minutes later
Matt Newman got one past Stahl – shooting a loose ball in the box after a free kick by
Colm Dillane – but a Tartan defender made the save with his keeper out of the net.
In the second half
Niki Chow had a fantastic opportunity that was again denied by the Carnegie defense. Dillane played a ball to
Kyle Green at the edge of the box, and Green sent a short pass forward to Chow. The junior had a good look at the net, but a Tartan defender slid in at the last moment and blocked the shot out of play.
On the defensive end, goalkeeper
Matt Stieve came through with a tremendous stop in the 28th minute. Mark Lacy fired a shot that took a hard bounce off the turf, but Stieve dove and caught it to keep things scoreless.
Stieve needed to make just one more stop, doing so early in the second overtime. The Tartans had the best chance of the extra sessions in the 94th minute, as Joey Paladino took a feed in the box and had a good look at the net. But his shot traveled just over the crossbar.
“Obviously the Emory game took a huge amount out of us, just to reiterate how formidable they were,” commented Behan. “We know it is extremely difficult to win two UAA games in a row, and we got another awakening of what we have to do to win at this level.
“We have to hand it to Carnegie Mellon,” he added. “They left everything out there. It was a 50/50 game.”
NYU returns to action with its final non-conference game of the regular season on Wednesday, when it hosts Rowan University at Gaelic Park in Riverdale. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.
