In front of a sizable Colonials Weekend crowd, men’s soccer dropped its first contest in nearly a month Saturday afternoon, edged 1-0 by the University of Rhode Island.
The loss also snapped a five-game win streak and three-game shutout streak for GW, which entered the match undefeated in conference play.
“Every run comes to an end,” head coach Craig Jones said. “To think that we would have gone unbeaten in conference is unrealistic. We knew there was going to be a game where even if we deserved to win, we wouldn’t, so this game’s behind us and we just move on to the next one.”
An early second half goal by URI midfielder Dominik Richter, who received a ball on the left wing and drew out GW senior starting goalkeeper Jack Lopez, would prove to be the dagger that dealt the Colonials their first Atlantic 10 loss.
While GW recorded its fourth scoreless outing on the season Saturday, the Colonials (7-6-0, 3-1-0 A-10) dictated play for most of the game and produced a handful of quality scoring chances.
“This is a good team we played against, obviously disappointed that we lost but we had some chances, we were a little unlucky today, hit the post a couple times,” Jones said. “We just didn’t quite have enough to win it, but you can’t fault the effort from the guys, it was just one of those days.”
In the first half, the team landed three shots on URI goalkeeper Nils Leifhelm while the Rams recorded zero on Lopez. But the back-and-forth frame ended in a scoreless tie, and as the two sides returned from halftime, it was still anyone’s game.
A speedy Rams forward managed to dribble past Lopez five minutes into the second half and stared down a wide open net. But junior defender Sam Summerlin converted a heroic sliding save in one of the game’s most thrilling moments, keeping URI off the board by blocking the shot headed for the back of the net.
But not long after in the match’s 59th minute, Lopez got beat again, this time by Richter, and the Rams did not fail to convert. Lopez, who had registered two straight shutouts entering Saturday’s contest, had the three saves in the 1-0 decision.
The Colonials looked a bit rattled, having been scored on for the first time in three games, but quickly regained their composure.
“Anytime you concede it knocks the wind out of your sails a bit. It took us about five minutes to regroup but then we started pushing and trying to get the equalizing goal, I think our response was pretty good,” Jones said.
A flurry of chances came later in the frame for GW from the likes of sophomore forward Christian Lawal, who led his team with two shots on goal on the day, senior forward Jonny Forrest and sophomore midfielder Koby Osei-Wusu, but no one could find an equalizer
Six saves on the day for Leifhelm and the URI lone goal were all the Rams needed to bring GW’s recent momentum to a screeching halt.
The Colonials will try to regroup Wednesday in their penultimate home game of the season when they take on A-10 foe St. Bonaventure at 1 p.m.
