Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

UMass falls to Utah Valley in season opener

 

(Robert Rigo/Daily Collegian)
(Robert Rigo/Daily Collegian)

It was a disappointing season opener for the Massachusetts men’s soccer team, as it fell 5-1 to Utah Valley, which was playing in its first match in school history.

The Minutemen (0-1) fell behind quickly, giving up a goal in the sixth minute when Wolverine forward Karson Payton found the back of a net to send a standing-room only crowd of 2,610 fans into pandemonium.

It took less than seven minutes for UMass to respond when a cross from junior Luke Pavone was headed in by Mark Morris at the 12:02 mark to knot things up at one. Things went downhill from there for the Minutemen, with Utah Valley scoring the next four goals, including three more in the first half.

The game was not the start interim coach Devin O’Neill was looking for after becoming the man in charge when longtime coach Sam Koch died in July. O’Neill acknowledged both the positives and negatives that his team could take away from this game.

“Defensively we’ve gotta get better, and I think we all owned that as a team,” he said. “We’re not expecting to give up five goals a game, but a lot of credit has to be given to Utah Valley, they were very good.”O’Neill said he was  impressed with the way his team handled itself in the face of a 4-1 halftime deficit.

“I believe that was a true testament to their character, the way they never stopped playing until the final whistle blew,” O’Neill said. “We were also quite dangerous on restarts all night, so we hope that’s a positive trend that will continue. There were a few periods of time where we were able to pass the ball quite well, so despite the heavy defeat there were some positives to take away.”

The Wolverines dominated  from the opening whistle, beating the Minutemen to several loose balls that resulted in multiple scoring opportunities and keeping the UMass back line under constant pressure.

Although the Minutemen outshot Utah Valley 16-15 and had two more corners than them, O’Neill said the Wolverines were strong in that area.

“I thought that they were very special up front,” he said. “They had a couple attacking players that were very dangerous and their finishing was very sharp, capitalizing on every mistake we made. I would say the difference between the two teams that night was that their attacking play created a lot of problems for our defense.”

Other goal scorers for Utah Valley were David Adams, Austin Buxton, Lucas Cawley and Matt Gay. Colin Partee was the winning goalkeeper for the Wolverines, while Taylor Culp was hit with a loss in his first start back since redshirting a year ago.

This game was also a first for UMass, as it was the first game in 23 seasons that Koch would not be on the sidelines.

“It’s really just been all about getting the team to move on and compete consistently, but there are certain moments where we reflect,” O’Neill said.

“At halftime I was asked what it was like to be without him, and all I thought about was what would he say at the time. I think as the season goes on, there will be different moments where memories come up, but we will just have to keep trying to be the best team we can be and hope the business distracts from thinking about it.”

With this game out of the way, the focus now turns to San Jose State as the Minutemen look to earn their first win of the season Tuesday night.

“Objective number one is absolutely to square ourselves up defensively, and reduce the number of goals we’ve conceded,” O’Neill said.

“We also just want to make sure we work hard defensively and keep up the work ethic that has been consistent thus far. I think if we can get those things squared away that gives us a good combination to come away with a result.”

Jason Kates can be reached at [email protected]

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