Men’s Soccer Suffers Double Overtime Lost To Bates

MATEO VAZQUEZ ’21
SPORTS EDITOR
 
This is perhaps one of the hardest fought games of the season for the Men’s soccer team as they suffered a loss to Bates College this past Saturday. Throughout the first half of gameplay both Trinity and Bates had issues moving the ball from the middle third of the field. It was almost a standstill as both sides struggled to dominate the other for overall possession. At the end of the first half, there were only a combined four shots on goal. Bates had what looked like a sure goal about halfway through the first half when their players Eric Opoku and Frederick Hohmann connected with shots just a few seconds apart from each other. However, the Bantams rookie goalie Everett Lyons’22 was able to make both saves. Unfortunately, however, in the 38th minute of play Bates forward Austin Sansone was able to get around the Bantams defense and received a thru ball that allowed him to be one on one with Lyons’22. Sansone then curved the shot past Lyons and put the Bobcats at a 1-0 lead over Trinity. Yet the Bantams held the Bobcats to the one goal and ended the half down by one.
Early on in the start of the second half, the Bantams exploded with a new momentum on the field. Henry Belt’21 sent a long pass to his teammate Alistair Matule’21 who was then able to place himself in a position that allowed him to be one on one with the keeper and finally chipping the ball over the keeper to tie the game at 1-1. Trinity continued to keep the pressure on the Bates throughout the second half and sought to connect with more passes in an attempt to slip past Bates defense. However, despite their numerous attempts the second half ended with at 1-1 and proceeded into overtime.
The first overtime was very similar to the majority of the second half, with neither team showing a dominance over the other. Although there were a few shots on goal none had the proper connection to seal the fate of the game. Hence, the game went into a second overtime. In the second half Sansone and Lyons’22 were once again put in a one on one situation, however, this time Lyons’22 placed himself directly in front of the shot and kept the Bantams in the game. Unfortunately, just minutes after that save Bobcats player Liam Goldfarb popped a shot on Lyons who deflected the shot but was unable to block the rebound that Bobcat midfielder Bakken placed into the goal and sealed the fate of the game at 2-1, a tuff loss for the Bantams. However, the Bantams are looking to move forward from this game as they face off against Wesleyan on Tuesday and Connecticut College on Saturday.