It was a rough week for the Shippensburg University men’s soccer team.
The Raiders travelled to West Virginia Wesleyan on Wednesday for a non-conference matchup, and then had to go to Gannon to take on the No. 19 Golden Knights in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) contest.
The Raiders lost their game against West Virginia Wesleyan by a score of 2–1 after trailing by two goals late in the second half. The Raiders’ goal came on a free kick from junior Jan Striewe for his fourth goal of the season.
But it was too little, too late. The Raiders only had 20 minutes after the goal to find an equalizer that never came. It was a disappointing loss for a team that was trying to rebound from heartbreaking, overtime loss against West Chester that prior Saturday.
The Raiders were unable to find any holes in Wesleyan’s defense and could not generate much pressure. Even when they did create pressure, Wesleyan did a great job recovering.
The Raiders had to turn around quickly after the loss and go on to play Gannon University— one of the top-ranked teams in Division II men’s soccer.
The game against Gannon started much better for SU, with both teams creating a lot of pressure. But both defenses were up for the challenge all the way through the first half.
The first goal of the game came for SU midway through the second half when Gannon’s keeper came out of his net. This allowed SU captain Colten Arnold to shoot the ball into an open net, giving the Raiders a 1–0 lead.
The lead did not last long, however, as the top scorer in Division II, Gannon’s Hamza Mourchid, was taken down in the penalty box. Mourchid converted the ensuing penalty kick for his 14th goal of the season to level the score with SU.
Only three minutes after the goal, SU’s redshirt freshman keeper Garret Watson was shown a red card and had to leave the field. He will have to miss the Raiders’ next game as a result of the penalty.
SU had to play with 10 men for the remaining 15 minutes of the game, and that is something it did not want to happen. Especially when playing a team like Gannon on its home field.
Sure enough, the Golden Knights took the lead with only five minutes left in the game on another penalty kick converted by Mourchid.
It was a very physical match with seven cards issued between the two teams.
SU will return home to play Seton Hill in a PSAC contest on Wednesday, looking to end this run of bad form.
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