Shippensburg University men’s soccer team celebrated senior day on Oct. 21 by putting up a fight against the Bloomsburg Huskies.
Eight seniors were recognized during the event. Combined, the seniors appeared in over 190 games throughout their college careers. The match ended in a 2-1 victory for Bloomsburg, mirroring the events of the Raiders’ Oct. 18 match against West Chester.
West Chester’s match ended with a score of 2-0. Peter Tichy scored the first point in the West Chester game, followed by Ian Alicea. Both goals occurred in just a 17-minute window across both periods. The Rams racked up an impressive 20 shots in the second half, keeping the pressure on until the last minute. The Raiders scored no goals that game but put up a strong fight and maintained a hopeful spirit into their next match.
In Saturday's game, the two teams had to face a third opponent in the form of high winds and rain.
The sudden environmental changes presented unique challenges, as kicks and passes were shifted by the sudden winds. Despite this, the Raiders kept in high spirits with great contributions from the team. “The game itself … was a battle,” said Nathon Weldon. “I feel that if we took our chances, we were the better team in some instances, but unfortunately the resolve didn’t hold. We’ve just got to move on to the next one.”
The leaders of the game for Shippensburg were Ryan Clark and Cam Henry, as well as Dalton Shifflett and Abdulrahman Obasa.
Cody Besser of Bloomsburg scored the first goal of the match just 71 seconds into the game. Bloomsburg continued this aggression for the rest of the period, leading goalie Ryan Glenlast to make five total saves within the period. Three of these saves were within 10 minutes of the period.
In the second period, hope returned to the Raiders as Cam Henry scored his first career goal 69 seconds in. He was assisted by Ryan Clark, who helped create an opening for Henry.
The two teams continued to put up an intense fight for the rest of the game, with Shippensburg nearly managing but ultimately missing two more attempted goals. The Bloomsburg Huskies found their victory through Alex Wilsterman, who scored the game-winning goal just 12 minutes after Shippensburg’s point. The score closed at 2-1, with 14 shots on goal from Bloomsburg and nine from Shippensburg.
Shippensburg will travel next Wednesday to Shepard University, where the Raiders will play at 3:30 p.m.
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