Any chance the Massachusetts men’s soccer team had for making the Atlantic 10 tournament was dashed on Saturday afternoon. However, the loss versus Richmond allowed some of the younger bench players to see time, and they showed a glimpse of what UMass soccer could look like in the future.
With the Minutemen down 1-0 to start the second half and desperately needing a spark, UMass coach Sam Koch went to his bench, summoning freshman Jake Murphy, senior Chris Gilbert and freshman Zach Miller.
“They had just been sitting and waiting and some of these starters just weren’t getting it done partly due to the fatigue from yesterday’s game,” said Koch.
The move paid off as all three players provided a second-half spark, while Murphy and Gilbert were each involved in UMass’ only goal.
The goal came in the 53rd minute when Gilbert found Robert Sena cutting to the net as the freshman chipped home the goal with his left foot, temporarily tying the score at one.
The goal was Sena’s first of his collegiate career and Gilbert’s assist was his first points in four seasons with the Minutemen.
“I thought Chris Gilbert played a really good second half and Rob Sena who played more today than he usually does I thought had a good game,” said Koch.
Sena was rewarded for his strong play off the bench in Friday’s game versus George Washington with his first start of the season the next day. Gilbert, who started seven of the first eight games of the fall, nearly broke the one-all tie when he stole a goal kick and ran with the ball unabated to the goalkeeper. However, Gilbert used too strong of a touch at the 18-yard marker and Spiders goalie Zac Brown took the ball off of Gilbert’s feet.
In addition to Sena and Gilbert’s play off the bench, Miller controlled the tempo of the game at center midfield and Murphy used his size to get his head on a number of balls and seemed to be involved in nearly every scoring opportunity for UMass.
Murphy and Gilbert entered the game alongside Sena and Miller in the 45th minute. From that minute on, UMass outshot Richmond 14-4.
“These guys give the team faith that if you train hard, you’ll get your chance and when you get your chance, you’ve got to do something with it and I think those guys did just that,” said Koch.
The UMass underclassmen took the game over in the second half and were the reason the Minutemen were in the game as 16 of UMass’ 24 shots came from freshmen or sophomores.
Perhaps most lethal of the underclassmen is freshman forward Josh Schwartz.
Schwartz has made his presence felt in the second half of the season when he became the primary scoring option up top.
The freshman took six shots on Saturday afternoon, with three challenging the goalkeeper. He put himself in position to score the game-winning goal in the second half on numerous occasions and often his shots eluded the net by just inches.
Koch credited players like Sena, Miller, Gilbert and Murphy who hadn’t seen regular playing time over the course of the season but found a way to contribute against Richmond.
“It’s hard to sit and watch, it’s hard to train and not get to play and we have a couple of guys that have unfortunately been in that situation and handled it pretty well,” said Koch.
The Minutemen will not make the A-10 tournament this season, but with underclassmen like Brett Canepa, Murphy, Schwartz, Miller and Sena, it’s easy to see their optimism for the future.
Jackson Alexander can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him @MDC_Alexander.
