By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Men’s soccer continued their season of misery with a 2-1 loss to Longwood on Wednesday afternoon in their final non conference game of the year.
The losing formula for the Revolutionaries (2-9-4, 0-5-1 A10) entailed going ahead early in the second half before swiftly giving up the lead and another goal 25 minutes later. The Lancers (5-4-3, 0-3-1 Big South) looked inspired playing in only their fourth road game of the season.
“We did enough, I thought, in the first half,” GW head coach Craig Jones said. “We should have scored a couple of goals. But when you don’t put teams away you give them a chance to get back in it. Even when we scored, we relaxed a little bit and guys started making some really strange decisions. But that’s the game sometimes.”
The Revs came out of the gates firing offensively in the third minute, with graduate student midfielder Will Turner flicking a header through to freshman winger Louis Saville. Saville put a cross on the ground into a dangerous spot and Longwood’s inability to clear saw it fall to freshman midfielder Yago Torres, who had his point blank shot saved by sophomore goalkeeper Max Hinke.
Just under 10 minutes later, Saville once again beat his defender and played a cross to freshman forward George Vincent. This time it was an aerial cross and although Vincent got free from his marker, he put the header well over the bar.
Saville has been a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster GW offense recently after scoring twice over the weekend in a 3-2 loss to Duquesne (although the second goal should have been counted as an own goal, I don’t imagine he cares). His technical ability and willingness to take defenders on has unlocked some things offensively for GW that they’ve been missing throughout the year.
“We knew he had that in him,” Jones said. “But the kid has only been here eight weeks. We can’t expect him to win games on his own, that doesn’t happen. But I’m glad that he’s finally hit some form, because that’s why we recruited him. That’s what we thought he could do week in and week out and I think he will do that for the rest of his career.”
Longwood created some trouble in the first half by getting down the wings and putting crosses in while winning set pieces. Particularly dangerous was the long throw from senior defender Ben Wilkinson but on long throws, corners, and free kicks alike, GW struggled to clear the ball. They nearly paid for it in the 16th minute when Wilkinson heaved a throw into the box and in the ensuing chaos junior defender Valentin Brandis poked a shot off the post.
In the 31st minute, Vincent got into a dangerous area and cut the ball back to senior midfielder Tim Neumann, who mishit the shot and put it wide. 10 minutes later, the ball fell to Neumann again, this time off a corner. He put the shot towards goal and it took a deflection but Hinke was able to punch it away while losing his balance. Vincent then chased after the ball and got tangled up with a Longwood defender. The referee elected not to call a penalty and my immediate reaction was to agree with him.
GW headed into the break looking like the better team, but Longwood was causing big issues for the Revs whenever they got forward. Seven minutes into the second half, Saville got tripped up and won a free kick on the left wing.
Junior defender Sean Vaghedi and graduate student midfielder Nacho Alastuey stood over the free kick. Vaghedi played it short to Alastuey, who played it back to his counterpart. Vaghedi then whipped an inswinging ball in, which freshman defender Joe Liebe knocked down for himself before swinging a leg at it and volleying it in. Liebe celebrated his first collegiate goal by heading to the corner with his teammates and throwing some punches at the corner flag, the celebration made famous by Australian attacker Tim Cahill.
Less than two minutes later, Wilkinson picked up the ball after a cleared Lancers corner kick and lofted it deep to junior midfielder Ethan Stevenson, who was running completely free towards the far post. Stevenson took the shot in stride, hitting it with the inside of his foot at GW junior goalkeeper Richard Raupp. Raupp spilled the ball, which hit off the post and then his back before going in. The Center Moriches, New York native should have done better with it and he knew it. Before GW knew what hit them, it was level again and it came from another disappointing goal conceded.
Longwood was the better team in the second half, even before the goals. They had more of the ball and did well to control the tempo. Although another golden opportunity didn’t come right away, the Lancers looked menacing.
In the 78th minute, Longwood forward Miles Cooper won the ball in the midfield and dribbled past two GW players before winning a duel on the ground against GW senior defender Carter Humm. The ball and Cooper then slipped in behind a flat footed junior defender Jared DeMott before Cooper put a shot slightly off DeMott and past Raupp.
Cooper celebrated by running over to the GW bench and sitting down criss-cross applesauce directly in front of them, which is among the more bizarre goal celebrations I have ever seen. Why did he do it? Who knows. Was it worth the yellow card that he got as a result? Unlikely. Did it elicit a reaction from the GW bench? Yes, but it was more confusion than anger.
GW looked to throw numbers forward, putting freshman defender Colin Prendergast up top in an attempt to knock balls down. But these efforts were to no avail as Lancers defended well and returned to Farmville with a hard fought victory.
For the Revs, it just hasn’t been their year. They are a young team and have been plagued by a myriad of issues. The frustrating thing is that once they patch one hole, another emerges. First it was taking plays off, then it was set piece defending, then it was scoring from open play. Some of the inconsistency can be attributed to injuries, some can be attributed to youth, and sometimes, as Jones has said many times this year, that’s just how it goes.
“I wasn’t expecting us to win the NCAAs with the group we had.” Jones said. “Would we have liked to have won more games? Yes. Could we have won more games? Yes. But that’s the learning curve for us.”
Next up for GW is a trip to Philadelphia to take on La Salle on Saturday at 7 PM in their penultimate match of the season and their final match on the road. They’re mathematically eliminated from A10 postseason contention so they’re just playing for pride and to send the seniors off on a good note. I will be in attendance covering the match because I am a GW soccer sicko.
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