In the classic Harrison Ford flick, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, there is a scene that shows the leader of the satanic group, that Jones is chasing, digging his fingers through the skin of one of the worshippers’ chest and physically ripping the beating heart out of this man’s body for everyone around to witness.
Saturday at Totman Field, University of Rhode Island forward Patrick Rooney emotionally ripped the heart out of the Massachusetts men’s soccer team [4-3, 0-1 A 10] when he fired a shot through the net in double-overtime to defeat the Minutemen 3-2 for all the UMass fans to see.
In the 110th minute of a tightly played match, following a mis-communication in the UMass box, Rooney broke free of the defense and netted a shot past the outreached arms of Minuteman goalkeeper Bryan O’Quinn – giving UMass it’s first loss at home this season.
“There obviously was some kind of miscue, because a man was open,” Head Coach Sam Koch said. “Those type of things should not happen.”
Saturday’s match against the Rams [4-1, 1-0 A 10] was the Maroon and White’s first taste of Atlantic 10 play this season. Unfortunately for the Minutemen they had to begin their intra-conference schedule against the squad that is predicted to finish number one in the A-10.
“They are favored to be the number one team in the conference for a good reason,” Koch said of URI. “They showed it today.”
Massachusetts showed throughout most of the game that they could hang with the Rams but were outplayed towards the end of the match.
Things looked great early when junior forward Jeff Deren continued his offensive explosion this season and put in the first goal of the game for UMass, making the score 1-0 in the 17th minute. Sophomore forward Yuri Morales came up with the unlikely assist when he took a shot from the right side of the box and missed wide to the left. Fortunately the feisty Deren was able to recover the ball and put it past Rams goalkeeper Michael Charles giving him his sixth goal of the season.
“He is a dangerous goal scorer,” Koch said of his leading goal scorer. “He can get the ball at his feet at the 18-yard box and put it away.”
Coming into Saturday’s affair with Rhode Island, UMass keeper O’Quinn had come off two consecutive shutouts – at New Hampshire 2-0 and at home versus Maine 7-0.
He continued his stellar play against the Rams. It took 76 minutes for URI to counter and tie the game up at one when Rams freshman Sasha Gotsmanov shot one past the senior captain and ended O’Quinn’s 300-minute shutout streak.
O’Quinn finished the day with six saves on 22 Rhode Island shots.
UMass rebounded and was able to regain the lead ten minutes later when an unlikely assassin appeared. Reserve forward Max Wolf sneaked away from the URI defense, gained control of the ball at the top of the box and nailed a shot from straight away past the URI goalkeeper – making the score 2-1 with 3:30 minutes left in the match.
Wolf’s teammates piled on the senior following the clutch goal, but the celebration might have been a little premature.
In almost a blink of the eye, the Rams were able to knot up the score once again, this time with a little help from a questionable call by the refereeing crew.
Just sixteen seconds after the second UMass goal, URI senior midfielder Dennis Richards was able to draw a penalty in the UMass box. This led to a penalty shot by forward Gareth Elliot and he capitalized on the free shot as he fired the ball to the left while O’Quinn went right – knotting the score again. The goal by Elliot sent the match to overtime.
“Let’s just say [the refs] made some mistakes but so did we,” Koch remarked. “If we put all our chances in and played perfectly, we would never have to worry about a referee.”
“In the second half I don’t think we played well because they took it to us,” Koch added. “We didn’t defend like we needed to and we made major mistakes that cost us.”
In the first extra session, the Minutemen put the pressure back on the Rams defense. They were able to produce four corner kicks in the period. Unfortunately they did not execute the planned plays to perfection. The Minutemen were unable to get the goal that would give URI sudden death.
Five minutes into the second overtime, Rooney gave Massachusetts its sudden death as he concluded the game with a rifling shot through the UMass posts.
“They are big and strong,” Koch said. “I think we can beat them, we just did not do it today.”