Despite holding a number of statistical advantages, the Slippery Rock men’s soccer team (6-4, 3-2) were unable to find the score column as they dropped a 1-0 decision at Seton Hill University (5-4-1, 2-2) on Wednesday.
“Wednesday night was a tough one to take,” Rock head coach Andy Hoggarth said. “I thought we put together one of our better performances but needed to take better advantage of our chances.”
Coming off of a 7-1 blowout victory against the University of Pitt-Johnstown on saturday in which junior forward Mike Ilodigwe scored four goals.
Senior forward Dom Francis, sophomore forward Matt Sangermano, and freshman midfielder Tobe Oreagbu added goals against the University of Pitt-Johnstown as well.
Oreagbu’s goal was the first of his colegiate career. Sophomore keeper Steven Rerick was in net for the majority of the contest before transfer junior Logan Mears entered the game in the 75th minute. Mears is a transfer from Mercyhurst-Northeast.
Against Seton Hill, the Rock outshot the Griffins 14-5 in total shots and 3-1 in shots on goal. Five of those shots came in the first 25 minutes of play, but the Rock was not able to capitalize on the opportunities.
Seton Hill was eventually able to put the game’s lone goal in the back of the net at the 31:21 mark in the first half as junior forward Seon Ripley beat Rock keeper Steven Rerick with a shot fired from just outside of the box.
Rerick played the entire 90 minutes of the contest, and only faced one shot that was on target, which happened to be Seton Hill’s game winning goal.
In eight games played, Rerick now has 47 saves on the season, and holds a .741 save percentage.
Senior forward Stephen Donnelly led the Green and White’s attack with four shots, followed by junior forward Mike Ilodigwe and senior defender Josh Brake each with three.
Sophomore Mike Pcholinsky added two shots to the Rock’s attack, and senior forward Dom Francis and senior midfielder Brandon Chiu each had one shot. Ilodigwe, Francis and Donnelly each had one shot on goal.
Chiu’s shot came in the final seconds of the game, but his shot was blocked by a Seton Hill defender to secure the Griffin victory.
A number of fouls occurred during the match, including SRU with 14 and Seton Hill with 18.
Two Seton Hill players, Seon Ripley and graduate student Joe Tchimou , were each issued yellow cards, the first to Ripley at 31:32 and the second to Tchimou at 86:51.
“As we move forward, we need to cut out the mistakes and become more efficient in and around the penalty box.” Hoggarth said.
The Rock will travel to Cedarville, Ohio on Saturday where they will take on Cedarville University (7-2-2) at 7 p.m. in a non-conference matchup.
The team will play their next home game on Oct. 17 for a 3:30 p.m. start against Bloomsburg University.
