By Josie Emanuelli
This past weekend, the men’s soccer team opened their conference play away at Elizabethtown College. The game finished at a tie after playing the game through regulation and double overtime, resulting in 110 minutes of difficult play with a score of 0-0.
This was the second tie of the season for the Rangers, and the first tie for the 16 ranked Elizabethtown. The Rangers took 12 shots, three of them on goal, which was close to the Blue Jay’s 16 shots, also with three on goal. Goalkeeper Stephan Lukianov (’19) recorded his second shutout of the season, which was also his third start of the season.
In addition to the strong defense Eduardo Martinez (’18) led the team in shots by taking three, one of them being on goal. Drew also managed to draw four corner kicks, closely following the Blue Jay’s five. One of the Blue Jay’s corner kicks almost turned lethal for Drew, as it occurred 96 minutes into the game, during overtime; if it had been successful the Rangers would have lost the game. Despite this, they managed to keep the game scoreless through the double overtime, leading their conference opener to a tie.
This past Tuesday, Drew added another win, beating out New York University 2-0, moving their record to 5-2-2 overall, winning their second road game of the season. This win also marked the second straight shutout for Lukianov, as he blocked four of NYU’s shots on goal, one of them being a penalty kick. There were two other penalty kicks awarded to Drew in the competition, and midfielder Joe Sollod (’17) scored on both of them, one in the eighth minute of the game and the other in the 77th minute of the game, securing the win for the Rangers as time dwindled.
Drew was outshot by NYU, taking 17 shots to Drew’s 11, however only four of those shots were on goal compared to the Ranger’s six. Three of Drew’s shots came from midfielder Anthony McMyne (’19) who led the team in shots during the game. Two of his shots were on goal and forced saves from the NYU goalkeeper. Despite being behind, NYU continued to press in the second half, outshooting Drew 10-6 in the second half, including their penalty kick but were unable to capitalize on any of their opportunities.
The Rangers are back in action at home on tomorrow, Oct. 1, as they take on conference rival Moravian College at 3:30 p.m. They seek to improve their 0-0-1 conference record, as Moravian also looks for a win as their current conference record is 0-1. Following this game the Rangers will then travel to the University of Scranton on Wednesday Oct. 5 to take on another conference opponent.
[Feature Image by Kat Brask/Staff Photographer. Caption: Joe Sollod (’17) made two penalty kicks against NYU]
