Up 1-0 in the 61st minute of his team’s game against Richmond Saturday night, GW men’s soccer freshman Jeff Eisenbud heard a whistle. Assuming he’d been fouled, he bent over to pick up the ball to set up his free kick.
Instead, it was Eisenbud who had earned the referee’s attention. Having already earned a yellow card earlier in the game for a hand ball, Eisenbud’s attempt to pick up the ball earned him a red card and an ejection from the game. It was a call head coach George Lidster called “absolutely ridiculous.”
“It was heartbreaking really, to be honest with you,” Lidster said. “I don’t usually criticize the refereeing, but Jeff Eisenbud was red carded for two innocuous yellow cards.
“It was strange. Really strange,” he added. “But, you know, that’s what it’s like on the road sometimes.”
Playing a man down, the Colonials were forced to revert into a defensive strategy, switching their formations to keep eight players back on defense and just two forward to attack the Richmond goal.
For about 20 minutes, the strategy worked for GW as it managed to keep the Spiders from netting an equalizer. Things began to come apart for the Colonials in the 84th minute, when Richmond’s Spencer Schiff fired a ball into the upper-right corner of the net from 20 yards out. Fewer than four minutes later, the Spiders’ Rob Scherer scored again for Richmond, giving it the lead and enough offense to topple GW 2-1.
“For the last 25 minutes. maybe the last 30 minutes, whatever, we’re trying to hang on with 10 men and we were doing such a great job and we were fighting valiantly with one man less,” Lidster said. “Very, very disappointing for the players. I felt very sorry for the players because they deserved to get a win or at least a tie.”
The loss was GW’s sixth in its last seven games and it was the seventh time this season that the Colonials have been held to one goal or fewer. The team’s lone goal in the game Saturday night came from GW’s leading scorer, sophomore Seth Rudolph, who has five goals on the season. No other GW player has more than two.
Lidster said his team’s scoring struggles so far this season have been largely due to the inability of his scorers to find a groove offensively.
“Goal scorers, once they get one or two, they tend to go on a roll. It’s the same in every sport,” he said. “Really, the players have not really managed quite to get into their groove, you know?”
Sophomore goalkeeper Brendan Lafferty made his second straight appearance against the Spiders, relieving senior goalie Erik Haug. Lafferty, who also played the second half of his team’s 2-0 win over Rider Oct. 2, is still recovering from a concussion he sustained in the team’s first game of the season. While he was out, the Colonials first turned to junior defender Jake Davis in goal before Haug rejoined the team Sept. 25. As the pair readjusts to being in goal, Lidster said, both players will also be competing for the starting job.
“Erik has done quite well for us. Brendan is getting back to full fitness. I don’t think either of them at the moment are probably fit enough to play a full game,” Lidster said. “Right now, I’m giving them a half each and it’s a position to win now. It’s really which keeper is gonna get hot. it’s a good situation to be in.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier next weekend for the Colonials, who will face Atlantic 10 powers Charlotte and Saint Louis next Friday and Monday, respectively. The challenge now, Lidster said, will be to keep the team focused and motivated.
“It’s going to affect your confidence when you lose a game like that, but I think they’re strong enough individually to give it a good go this weekend,” Lidster said. “It doesn’t concern me. We’ll work with the guys and I think by Friday we’ll be ready to give it a shot.”
Kickoff Friday for the game against the 49ers is set for 3 p.m.
