ALBANY, N.Y. – The Lafayette men's soccer team fell by its second straight 1-0 margin to open the 2016 season on Tuesday night at Albany.
Playing on the football field, the quick surface forced an adjustment period early for the visiting Leopards, coming off a double-overtime defeat to St. Francis in the opener this past Friday evening. Albany took advantage as the only goal of the game came in the ninth minute of play.
Following a ball taken away in the middle, the Great Danes' Carlos Clark raced toward the Lafayette defense and played an excellent through ball down the middle of the field for a cutting Afonso Pinheiro, making a run toward the left corner of the box. Pinheiro settled and fired a missile that was perfectly placed with no chance for Lafayette goalkeeper Brad Seeber to make a stop in the high right corner of the net.
The game moved quickly back-and-forth down the pitch through to the halftime break before a chance for the home side opened the second stanza. Working down the left side in the 46th minute, Albany's Moosah Khanat cut back to the right and sent a difficult, low bouncing shot toward Seeber, who had trouble corralling it, but the defense in front of him cleared it from danger.
Lafayette looked to have set up the equalizer on a set play in the 59th minute off a free kick near midfield. Senior Campbell Weyland sent a ball in toward the right side of the box where Egan won it out of the air and found a cutting freshman Evan Vare on the opposite side. Unfortunately, Vare's speed proved costly on this occasion as he had trouble handling the cross and couldn't get a shot away.
The Leopards couldn't find the back of the net through the final 30 minutes, falling to 0-2 to start the year. Seeber made three saves in net and Albany outshot Lafayette, 9-7. The Leopards won three corners compared to one for the Great Danes and fouls were 14-10 with Lafayette committing the latter.
Freshman James Gibson provided an attacking threat up front with three shots and two of them on goal, while Vare put his only shot on target and Egan, senior Ben Marks and freshman Ryan Goncalves tallied the other chances for the Maroon and White.
Lafayette returns home on Friday for a showdown with Fairfield at 7 p.m.
