Preview: Men’s soccer hosts Blackbirds and Blue Devils this weekend

Guilherme Fanck passes the ball during a game against Saint Francis Brooklyn Photo credit: David Auth

Delenn Poe and Delenn Poe
October 19, 2018

The Robert Morris Colonials take on the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds on Friday, October 19th at the North Athletic Complex at 3 p.m. The Colonials are 4-8-1 overall and 2-2-0 in the conference, but the Blackbirds are 9-3-1 overall and undefeated in conference at 4-0. The Blackbirds are coming off of an eight winning streak while the Colonials lost their last game to Fairleigh Dickinson (5-5-4) by a final score of 1-0 in double overtime. The Blackbirds have won three of their last eight games in overtime.

The Colonials take on the Central Connecticut Blue Devils (0-10-1, 0-4-0) on Sunday, October 21 at the North Athletic Complex at 1 p.m. The Blue Devils lost their last four games and the Colonials are coming off of a loss to Fairleigh Dickinson (5-5-4).

Recapping RMU

In their last game, the Colonials played the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (5-5-4) and the Colonials were defeated by the Knights. The Colonials had seven shots total and four shots on goal while the Knights had 11 shots total and four of them were on goal. The Knights had four saves while the Colonials only had three and the Colonials had 14 fouls and the Knights had nine.

The Colonials are 6th in the conference behind St. Francis Brooklyn (5-8-0, 2-2-0) and are ahead of Mount St. Mary’s (1-3-1, 2-8-3). The Colonials were outscored by their opponents 12 to 20 and they were outshot 137 to 183. The Colonials and their opponents were both one for two in penalty kicks.

Flying Blackbirds

The Blackbirds had been on an eight-game win streak when they defeated Mount St. Mary’s. In that game, the Blackbirds had 35 shots and 12 of them were on goal while Mountaineers had five shots and only two of them were on goal. They outscored their opponents 25 to 18, but they are outshot by their opponents 177 to 157. Their goals scored per game is 1.92 compared to their opponents’ 1.38 and their shot percentage is.159 to their opponents .102.

The Blackbirds are first in the NEC standings, ahead of St. Francis University (6-3-3, 2-0-2). The Blackbirds have fewer penalties than their opponents, 130 to 141, and their goalies have saved 70 potential goals while their opponents 49. They also have 27 assists to their opponents’ 12.

Scouting the Blue Devils

The Blue Devils are on a four-game losing streak and were last defeated by Mount St. Mary’s. In that previous game, the Blue Devils had 16 shots with seven on goal and the Mountaineers had eight shots and seven were on goal. In total, the Blue Devils had 104 shots, 21 goal attempts but only eight goals plus they only had 4 assists on the season.

The Blue Devils are last in the NEC standings as they sit behind Sacred Heart (2-10-1, 0-3). The Blue Devils shot percentage is .077 overall and .057 since conference play started while their shots per game have also gone down as they average 9.5 overall and 8.8 in the conference play. They had 41 shots on goal overall, but just 16 in the conference and their shots on goal percentage is .394 overall and has grown to .457 in conference play.

Players to watch

The players to watch for Robert Morris are senior forward Zac Sherman, senior defender Owen Pearce and senior goalie Winter Fondi.

Zach Sherman (RMU): Sherman has played 11 games and started all of them. He leads the team with five goals, 10 shots on goal and 20 shots in total. He also had three assists, which is second on the team and leads the team in game-winning goals with two.

Owen Pearce (RMU): Pearce has played and started 12 games and he is second in goals with three. He leads the team in assists with four and he is currently tied for second in shots on goal with eight and he has 14 shots in total.

Winter Fondi (RMU): Fondi has played in 11 games, but only started four of them. He had 49 saves which are .754 percent save rate but he has a goal average of16 over the entire season which is 1.42 percent goal rate. He has a record of 4-6-1 and he has four shutouts on the season.

The players to watch for the Blackbirds are sophomore midfielder Fredrik Mathisen, senior midfielder Rasmus Hansen and freshmen goalie Sam Ilin.

Fredrick Mathisen (LIU): Mathisen has played in and started 13 games and he is tied with Rasmus Hansen for the most goals on the team with five. He is third on the team in assists with four. He is second in shots with 23 and shots on goals with 10 and he has one game-winning goal.

Rasmus Hansen (LIU): Hansen has started all the games this season so far and he leads the teams in shots with 41 and he had 17 shots on goal which is the highest on the team. He leads the team with three game-winning goals and he does not have any assists.

Sam Illin (LIU): Ilin has played nine games but only started eight and he has a goal average nine over the season which is 1.13 percent. He has the most saves with 38. His record is 6-1 and he has two shutouts.

The players to watch from the Blue Devils are senior forward Louis Beddouri, freshman Midfielder Noah Silverman and grad transfer Carson D’Ambrosio.

Louis Beddouri (CCSU): Beddouri started and played all 11 games for the team and leads them with four goals. He has 22 total shots and 12 shots on goal. He has one penalty kick goal and no assists.

Noah Silverman (CCSU): Silverman started and played in all the games so far during this season. He is second with two goals, and he is tied with John Wilkin with one assist. He has five shots on goals which are second behind Beddouri.

Carson D’Ambrosio (CCSU): D’Ambrosio played 10 games but only started nine of them and he had 43 saves on the season so far. His record is 8-1 and his goal average on the season 19 with his percentage being 1.86.

Predictions

I am predicting that the Colonials are going to lose to the Blackbirds because the Blackbirds offense will overpower the Colonials. The Blackbirds ability to limit the amount of opportunities for their opponents to score will leave the Colonials with another loss added to their record. I predict that Blackbirds will take the game 3-0.

As far as the second game goes, I predict that the Colonials are going to win against the Blue Devils because the Colonials offense will band together to secure this win. They will have to put lots of pressure of the Blue Devils and also will have to defend their side of the field. I predict that the Colonials will win this game 2-1.

The Colonials next game will be against Mount St. Mary’s on October 26th at 7:00 p.m. at Waldron Family Stadium.