The Purple Eagles men’s soccer team returns to Niagara Field to close out the 2016 regular season with a pair of home games. The first of those games is Saturday, Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. against the Manhattan Jaspers. The Jaspers come to Monteagle Ridge after a high-flying 3-3 draw on the road against Fairfield on Wednesday.
The Purple Eagles scored a late goal to draw within one, but fell 2-1 at Marist on Wednesday.
Marist opened the scoring in the fourth minute and took a 1-0 lead all the way to halftime. Niagara’s best chance of the first half came in the 28th minute, as Josh Tufino was set up with a shot off of Konrad Zydowicz’s corner kick, but the shot was blocked by the Marist defense. After being outshot 10-1 in the first half, Niagara held a 9-5 edge in the second half as the Purple Eagles made a strong push to get back in the game. Navid Rahman had a pair of strong scoring chances early in the second half. A long shot from Sergio Lujan was turned away in the 61st minute, and Marist came back and scored on its next possession. Niagara’s defense did a great job to block a shot from Maristin the 65th minute, but the Red Foxes regained possession and doubled the lead to 2-0 just before the 66-minute mark. After the second Marist goal, Niagara outshot Marist 5-0 over the closing 24 minutes of regulation. Mbongeni Tshuma had a close shot stopped by the Red Foxes’ Ryan Sinnott, and Shiquan Lowe ripped a long shot from the far right side of the field off the crossbar just over Sinnott’s outstretched hand. Right at the 88-minute mark, it was Adel Rahman who got Niagara on the board with his first career goal. Shiquan Lowe fed a pass wide to Mackenzie Roach on the right wing. Roach beat his defender wide and fed Rahman in the box 10 yards from the goal. Rahman beat Sinnott low and away to the left side, making it a 2-1 game, a score that would hold through 90 minutes.
Niagara senior back Konrad Zydowicz was one of 13 players named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Men’s Soccer First Team for District 1. Zydowicz has started 13 of 15 matches this season, helping Niagara rank sixth in the MAAC in scoring defense. The Rochester native also scored his first career assist Aug. 26 at Robert Morris, and tallied his first career goal Sept. 9 in Niagara’s home opener versus NJIT.
Manhattan comes into Saturday’s match 11th in the MAAC, but the Jaspers have a 1-2-2 record in their last five games. Manhattan holds a 14-9-3 edge in the all-time series with Niagara. The Jaspers earned a 3-3 draw at Fairfield on Wednesday thanks to a trio of goals scored by Joe Hulme, Ryan Shields, and Andrew Melitsanopoulos. Hulme leads the Jaspers in scoring with five points, and he is tied with Shields for the team lead with two goals this season. Niels Kirch has a Manhattan-best 34 shots and 15 shots on goal in the 2016 campaign.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
