Team Begins to Make Strides

We finished up last week with a 1-0-1 record and continue to see improvement in our quality of play.

Last Wednesday it was a cold, rainy night in Frostburg, but despite the weather we were able to do enough to defeat St. Vincent College 2-0. It was hard to control the ball at times on the wet turf, but we limited St. Vincent's chances and towards the end of the game junior Mike Bistany put us ahead on a well struck free kick and freshman Toby Schaffner would record his first collegiate goal in the waning minutes to put the game away 2-0. It was nice to get the shutout at home and get back to finding a way to win.

Saturday we were on the road at Mary Washington. Mary Washington came into the game tied for first in the conference and boasting an impressive 7-2-1 record. We knew it would take another performance like that against York and Salisbury to keep us in the game and we were hoping to be a little more of an offensive threat this time around.

For the first time since the first game of the season we had every player healthy and available which was a big boost to the team confidence. Sophomore Dillon Muise would put us ahead in the second half with his team leading fourth goal of the season with a blast from about 20 yds. out which knuckled and went over the keepers head. Unfortunately, on the strike Muise would re-aggravate a hamstring injury and will most likely have to sit for the next few games. Mary Washington would tie the game on a penalty kick with about 20 minutes left in the game. The game went back and fourth for a while and ended with an FSU flurry of shots on the goal including what was thought to be the game winner with just seconds left as Jamie Flewellyn followed up a rebound and sent it towards the open UMW goal. A Mary Washington defender would slide out of nowhere and save the ball off the goal line to secure the tie and send the game into overtime. Neither team was very dangerous in the overtime periods and the game would end in a 1-1 draw.

We are off midweek, but back on the road this weekend against CAC opponent St. Mary's College. The parity of the conference has shown itself with all nine teams still alive for the six playoff spots as we head into the last two weeks of the season.