Soccer on the road

By Amanda King
Collegian Staff
October 18, 2006

This weekend marked the end of some harsh Atlantic 10 conference travel for the men’s soccer team, as they spent over 14 hours on the road.

“Atlantic 10 travel can be very tough; you’re supposed to spend one weekend home, one weekend away, and so forth. However, our schedule didn’t work out that way this season,” coach Pat Farrell said.

The team’s first destination was St. Bonaventure on Friday night.

The team trailed 1-0 at halftime. But in the 56th minute of play, junior Jeremy Ortiz took a pass from sophomores Kevin Lydic and Jim Davies and put it into the net. This tied the game at 1-1.

Only six minutes later, freshman Joey Foster scored the second goal of his collegiate career off of a pass from Lydic. This gave the Explorers a 2-1 edge.

La Salle was leading the game, until a Bonnie found his way to the net to tie the game up at two goals apiece. The teams fought hard through two overtimes, but neither offense could gain the lead, and the game ended in a tie.

“We played well enough to win, but just couldn’t get it,” Farrell said. “You need to defend, and we couldn’t.”

The team woke up on Saturday looking forward to a day of traveling. This time their destination was the Bronx to play the Fordham Rams the following day.

On Sunday, the team faced off against Fordham. The Rams took an early lead of 2-0. However, this did not discourage them, as they dominated possession during the second half.

“They’ve really improved their game and level of play. This was our first loss to them in over five years,” Farrell said.

The Explorers tried to gain a stronger offensive advantage, but were not able to get the game in their favor.

“It’s my belief that if we can win our next three games, we can make it to the A10 tournament,” Farrell said.

These will be three big games for the Explorers – the biggest of the season so far.

kinga3@lasalle.edu