Men's squad battles back, loses in overtime

October 9, 2006 —

by Brandon Kish

Sophomore Ryan Seelhoff battles for possession in the Cards' half on Saturday.

After over 100 minutes of scrappy, aggressive soccer, the SVSU men's squad dropped its tenth game of the season, 3-2, to the Aquinas Saints in dramatic fashion.

The Saints put the Cards down one very early in the game, when defender Ryan Robleske headed the ball behind SVSU junior keeper Nick Kohn after only six minutes of play. Head coach Andy Rishmawi lamented the early lead spotted to the Saints.

"When you play the lead, there's just more confidence there," he said. "You can take a 30-yard shot and have it dip."

The Cards began to claw back immediately after the goal, with junior forward Matt Wiegand and junior defender Jimmy Henry both logging shots on target within five minutes of the Saints' score. Henry's shot broke wide of the net, but Wiegand's forced Saints keeper Ben Richardson off his line.

The game opened up after the initial flurry, with both teams settling into their routines. Aquinas worked the counter-attack and the Cards began to assume more and more possession of the ball, knocking it around with crisp passing in the middle and down the wings.

Sophomore defender Brent Walker managed to record three shots on the Saints' net in the first period, and as a team the Cards out-shot Aquinas 12-11. However, as has been the case all year, the men couldn't put the ball away and the Saints punished them for it, scoring on a penalty call in the 42nd minute.

"We're fighting from behind the whole time, exhausting all of our energy getting those two goals back (to) tie the game," Rishmawi said.

The Cards returned from the break ready to take the lead, though, and managed to trouble Richardson only five minutes into the half with another shot from Henry on a corner from sophomore playmaker Ryan Seelhoff. Henry would leave the match having recorded four shots on net and Seelhoff would later log one of his own.

SVSU continued to press the attack, and were eventually rewarded with a goal from Henry in the 56th minute, cutting the deficit in half. The goal marked the beginning of a very intense period of play that saw the Cards assault the Saints' half of the field, recording an impressive 11 shots on target compared to Aquinas' five. The unrelenting attack paid off in the form a free kick awarded to Seelhoff, who put the ball away and tied the match up in the 82nd minute of play.

The goal fired both squads up and after the kickoff, the Saints and the Cards managed to compile a total of six fouls in eight minutes, and Aquinas forward Brian Himes was penalized with a yellow card.

The Saints almost nearly dealt the finishing blow in the 85th minute when a shot from freshman defender Nick Schmuck hit the woodwork.

It appeared as if the game wouldn't finish in the first overtime period, either, but with 30 seconds left on the clock, Aquinas earned its trip home with a shot by junior forward Goran Guzina in the 104th minute off of a throw-in near the corner.

The inability of the Cards to simply finish their attacking pieces probably cost them the game, as 11 chances in the second period proved insufficient to tally a win.

Rishmawi thought that it wasn't entirely the players' fault.

"For some reason, we just can't finish right now," he said. "And I put a lot of the blame on me - if we're not finishing, I must not be teaching them."

The loss drops the men to 2-10 on the season. They host Northwood tomorrow at 3 p.m.