M. soccer drops two more in conference | The Triangle

M. soccer drops two more in conference

(Ken Chaney The Triangle)
(Ken Chaney The Triangle)

The good news is that Drexel’s men’s soccer team scored in both of their last two games. The bad news is that opponents scored eight goals total in both of those games.

On Oct. 10, the Dragons traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina to face off against Colonial Athletic Association rivals the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Unlike most of their contests this season, the Dragons were dominated pretty much throughout the entire game on both sides.

Although they did not give up a goal in the first half, UNCW had a lot of chances to get on the board and held Drexel to few chances of their own.

In the first half, the Seahawks took nine shots to Drexel’s two. They also had six corner kicks to the Dragons’ one, and the ball was in the Drexel zone for most of the half.

In the second, the UNCW onslaught finally yielded goals and the Dragons could not keep up. In the 50th minute, Ben Fisher opened up the scoring off of a free kick goal from 25 yards out, putting UNCW up 1-0.

A few minutes later, the Seahawks doubled their lead, when Colin Bonner collected a loose ball in the box and finished it. Drexel tried to up their pressure, and it worked compared to the first half. They took five shots in the second, but that extra offensive pressure made them more vulnerable to the UNCW attack.

In the 77th minute, the Dragons relented once again, when Brayden Smith finished a header off of a corner kick to put UNCW up, 3-0.

The Dragons managed to finally get on the board minutes later via a Colin McGlynn goal, but it was too little, too late.

With the loss, the Dragons fell to 1-4 in the conference and 2-10-1 overall.

A few days later, the Dragons faced another CAA rival in the University of Delaware. Once again, Drexel was outclassed in the game.

Once again, their opponent dominated throughout, but this time UD was able to get on the board early in the game. In the first half alone, the Blue Hens took 15 shots to Drexel’s one and overall controlled the pace and flow of the game on both ends.

In the 24th minute, a loose ball in the box once again hurt the Dragons, as Delaware’s Ryan Talbot put away a dribbler on the left side of the box from seven yards out to give UD an early lead. The UD attack continued to be ravenous, and less than 10 minutes later, they got on the board again. A corner kick from Thomas De Villardi found Thibault Phillippe’s head, and the ball found the middle of the net to give the Blue Hens a 2-0 lead.

The Dragons managed to hold out for the remainder of the half, but were unable to make any noise of their own on the offensive end.

A few minutes into the second half, Delaware extended its lead to three goals when da Villardi got a goal of his own courtesy of the cross into the box from Guillermo Delgado.

The Dragons finally managed to get on the board in the 61st minute, as Colin McGlynn scored his second goal in two games to bring the score to 3-1.

Near the end of the game, the Dragons were in full offensive pressure mode and gave up two more goals. In the 88th minute, Guillermo Delgado scored off an assist from de Villardi on a 2-on-1 breakaway. A few minutes later, the Dragons yielded another goal courtesy of an own goal, and the game ended 5-1.

A couple of really tough losses for the Dragons this week have all but ended their hopes of salvaging the season. They currently sit in last place in the CAA and only have two more CAA games remaining on their schedule.

This week in particular is troubling, because the aspect of the team that is usually stout, the defense, seems to be faltering along with the offense. It resulted in a few ugly losses, but in the grand scheme of the program, this season is nothing to worry too much about.

This season was always likely to be a “rebuilding” year for the Dragons, as they have so many freshmen on both ends that need to grow into the college game and playing together as a team.

A particularly impressive player this season has been Colin McGlynn. On an otherwise anemic offense, he’s been a bright spot. He has scored four goals and has an assist on the year. No other player on the team has more than one goal.

The Dragons will look to continue improving and growing together Oct. 20 against Loyola University Maryland at 7 p.m.