The season for the GW men’s soccer team went from bad to worse this weekend.
The Colonials were shut out in two matches at South Riding Field, losing to Massachusetts 1-0 on an own goal Friday before losing 2-0 to Rhode Island Sunday.
The pair of home losses were the 11th and 12th straight matches without a win for the Colonials (1-10-2, 0-3-2 Atlantic 10). GW is in danger of eclipsing the school record for most losses in a season – 12 in 1994.
GW travels to St. Bonaventure Friday and Duquesne Sunday.
URI 2, GW 0
The Rams scored twice in the first 16 minutes to take an early lead and hand GW its 10th loss of the season.
Rhode Island wasted no time in taking control of the match when Adam Piotrowski scored unassisted in the fifth minute.
URI’s Nicholas McCroath played a ball out of the air that was touched by a GW player before it was collected by Piotrowski. The senior Ram forward was bumped by GW’s defense but managed to split defenders and nail a low-line drive into the lower left corner of the net.
“It was a game of two halves, we started off very slowly,” GW head coach George Lidster said. “In the first 15 minutes, we were asleep and gave two goals away and now we’re playing catch-up and we’re not good enough to play catch-up in that situation.”
The Rams’ second goal started when a direct kick by Piotrowski hit the right post after it was tipped by GW goalie Michael Jelencovich and bounced to the right of the goal. Rhode Island was quicker to the loose ball than GW as Raymie Marchak crossed the ball in front of the Colonials’ goal. Steven DeMoura got the pass and hit the upper left corner of the net to give URI a 2-0 lead.
Rhode Island (5-5-1, 2-2-1 A-10) had several good chances to increase its lead in the first half, but GW dominated play in the second half.
GW’s best opportunity to score came in the 66th minute, when Ben Ferry worked the ball from about midfield to the endline against defensive pressure from the Rams. He crossed the ball to freshman Jason Holloway, who brought the ball down on a possible hand ball and lined a shot toward the left corner. URI goalie George Karademetriou made the save, but Holloway got another chance on the rebound. He directed his shot at the same spot but came away with the same result as Karademetriou made another great save.
UMass 1, GW 0
UMass earned its first win of the season by shutting out GW at South Riding.
The lone goal of the match came in the 53rd minute. A GW defender and UMass’ Mike Janusz went after a loose ball in the air, but Jelencovich came out to try to clear the ball. Jelencovich played the ball, which bounced off Janusz’s back and rolled into the open net from 17 yards away.
“Their goal was actually a comedy of errors,” Lidster said. “I thought we deserved to win that one.”
GW had several scoring chances in the game, including a Ben Hatton header that hit the crossbar in the 28th minute.
