At a scoreless stalemate and with less than a half to play in Sunday afternoon’s matchup against Saint Louis, the Massachusetts men’s soccer team was searching for a much-needed spark.
Coming off a heartbreaking, double overtime loss to No. 14 Charlotte on Friday, the Minutemen were in danger of going pointless in the opening weekend of Atlantic 10 play – a potentially disastrous circumstance for a team about to set forth on a four-game conference road trip and in need of wins.
But then UMass coach Sam Koch lit a fire under his team at halftime and within five minutes, a spark was finally ignited courtesy of Hellah Sidibe’s lightning-quick feet.
The junior midfielder took the ball and streaked up the left sideline with a full head of steam, using a burst of speed to dribble past Billikens defenders and deliver a cross to Connor DeVivo, who was unmarked atop the 18-yard box.
The sophomore forward flicked the ball towards goal, which was then touched by an SLU defender’s hand, resulting in a penalty kick opportunity for the Minutemen. Moments later, Brett Canepa stepped up to the spot and crushed a low shot to the right side of the goal mouth. The goalkeeper guessed right, but the ball crept by him, tapped the inside of the post and fell into the net to give UMass the 1-0 lead.
The Minutemen would never look back in the contest and held on for the rest of the 40 minutes of regulation to secure their first A-10 victory of the season.
“It’s vital,” said Koch of the win. “To go 0-2 after the first two games would have made it extremely difficult going into the next four games.”
“It’s a big momentum changer,” added Canepa. “Hopefully we can carry this win on the road and get some ‘W’s’ against Fordham and La Salle.”
In order for UMass to capture its first true road win of the season next weekend, Canepa and the rest of the offense will have to echo their second half performances, especially if senior captain Bryant Craft remains out of the lineup with an injury.
In the second half on Sunday, the Minutemen created several opportunities that didn’t register as goals on the score sheet, but will undoubtedly give them confidence moving forward.
Canepa came within inches of scoring his second goal of the day in the 83rd minute, when a loose ball in the box ended up landing at his feet from 23 yards out, from which he ripped a laser off the crossbar.
Shortly after that, Chris Roswess led a two-on-one counter attack with Josh Schwartz. He laid it off on the right side to the freshman, who dribbled the ball a few strides into the 18-yard box before attempting to feed it back to Roswess, but it was intercepted by a Billikens defender to end the threat.
“I think the guys were finally moving the ball better,” said Koch. “At halftime, we talked about how you’ve got to limit the touches, you’ve got to play more one and two touch and you’ve got to play more direct. If we held onto the ball too long, it just made it too easy for them to get on the end of it and we did that better.”
“We actually are [jelling together offensively],” said Canepa. “We’re starting to come together, starting to see certain things, certain options and starting to play a lot better.”
Schwartz, who has seen an increased responsibility offensively in the absence of Craft, appears to be coming into his own.
In the first half of Friday’s contest against Charlotte, Canepa found Schwartz wide open off of a corner kick opportunity and he took the ball and buried a blazing strike from 30 yards out, past the diving 49ers goalkeeper to put the Minutemen ahead 1-0.
On Sunday afternoon, after not getting the starting nod, the freshman immediately made his presence known when he was subbed in. Schwartz received the ball all alone from about 35 yards out and blasted a shot that forced the goalkeeper to make a diving stop.
With no timetable yet announced for Craft’s return to the lineup, Canepa and Schwartz may be just the sparks that UMass needs as it enters its crucial upcoming road trip over the next couple of weeks.
“Everybody’s got to pick it up a little more without Craft out there, but I think everybody’s done a good job,” said Koch. “Obviously I think Schwartz, as we go, is getting better and better and DeVivo is doing a good job filling in for Craft. I’m pleased with what they’ve done.”
“Could we have done it a little bit better with scoring a couple more goals? We could have, but we didn’t and we still found a way to do it,” added Koch. “So I don’t think we played that well and still got the win, which I think says a lot of what we can do, but we have to start doing it.”
Stephen Hewitt can be reached at [email protected].
