Frostburg Falls on the Road to Mary Washington

Junior Hassan Mostafa

In a tightly contested match up on Wednesday we fell 1-0 to the University of Mary Washington.

Both teams defended well and limited both offenses to very few shots.  Mary Washington registered seven shots to Frostburg's six.

I thought the game could have gone either way as both teams squandered what limited opportunities they had.  The game winner came off a corner kick where Hassan Mostafa made the initial save, but the rebound was kicked home to give the Eagles the win.

I thought we played well.  It wasn't our best performance, but UMW is a very solid team and we played pretty evenly.  Rodrigo Valenzuela stepped up and played well when Hunter Jarmon was limited to just the first half after being knocked out of the game with concussion like symptoms.

Carvell Akuffo should be back in training today and we are hopeful that Sergio Gomez, Jon Lippitt, and Hunter Jarmon will all be ready to go for the CNU match on Saturday.

Nabo Earns Player of the Week Honors

Guy Nabo

FROSTBURG, Md. – Men's soccer player freshman Guy Nabo was honored as the CAC Offensive Player of the Week for Oct. 5, 2015.

Nabo led the Bobcat offense in both games FSU played last week, tallying two goals and one assist. His first goal came in Frostburg's 5-1 victory over Penn State Altoona, where he earned the first goal of the game.

With the Bobcats trailing conference foe Wesley 2-1 late in regulation, Nabo headed the ball to bring the Bobcats back into the game in the 74^th minute. He also assisted teammate junior Jonathan Lippitt's game-winner in the 80^th minute to push the Bobcats to a 3-2 victory.

Frostburg State currently stands at 8-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference with wins over Marymount and Wesley.

The Bobcats play again when they travel to conference foe Mary Washington Tuesday, October 6 at 4:00 pm.

FSU Slips Past Wesley

Junior Jonathan Lippitt

Even tropical storm Joaquin could not dampen the spirits of the FSU vs. Wesley match on Saturday evening.  Both teams played with a lot of energy and fight, and while it wasn't always the prettiest soccer it was surely entertaining.  That fighting spirit paid off as we came from behind to earn the 3-2 win against the Wolverines.

The conditions were slick, but not different than your average rainy day in Frostburg in October. Wesley did a good job of disrupting our play and made it difficult for us to work the ball out of the back.  Despite being out shot in the first half we were able to take the lead when Mitchell Muise followed up a Deion Hunter free kick that the goalkeeper could not handle and poked in the rebound.

Muise Goal: https://youtu.be/H6ZQsMONQws

I thought we were moving the ball better during the 2nd half, but Wesley was able to get one back off a free kick that bounced around the box and then later added a nice cross and volley to take the the 2-1 lead.

The boys kept fighting and in the 73rd minute Erik Casterline found Guy Nabo with a service that Nabo was able to head in the corner of the goal to tie the match.

Nabo Goal: https://youtu.be/5oml72t2aa8

Six minutes later Nabo broke through the back line and after pulling the keeper out of position was able to slot the ball across the goal for an easy tap in by Jonathan Lippitt.  This was Lippitt's first collegiate goal.

Lippitt Goal: https://youtu.be/cifRRLqwhj8

The win puts us at 2-0 in CAC play and 8-2 overall.  The toughest stretch of the season starts today as we travel for road matches against Mary Washington, Christopher Newport, and York College all in the next week.

Starters Sergio Gomez and Carvell Akuffo who have been out the last two matches will be out again toady along with Lippitt who picked up an injury in the Wesley win.  We are going to get a chance to see what our bench is made of and hopefully they can step up when called upon.

Bobcats Offense Comes Alive at Altoona

Freshman KJ Davis and Hunter Jarmon

In our final non-conference match of the season the we faced former AMCC rival Penn St. Altoona. With the help of a strong second half the boys posted a 5-1 victory.

Guy Nabo does what he does best and that is score goals.  He opened up the scoring just 16 minutes into the game after a beautiful feed from KJ Davis.  Davis split the defenders with a pass that allowed Nabo to go 1v1 with the keeper for the easy finish.  Nabo has now scored in seven of nine games.

Altoona didn't quit and kept pushing for the tie. After some questionable defending they were able to tie the game when they got a shot past goalkeeper Hassan Mostafa from just outside the 6-yard box.

Mostafa would come up huge when he saved a penalty kick just five minutes into the 2nd half which kept the game tied at one.  That momentum carried over and the offense began to come to life.

Owen Marx scored his second of the season off a feed from defender Erik Castlerine.  We would tally three more times in the next twelve minutes to put the game away with goals from KJ Davis, Kelvin Tata, and Hunter Jarmon.

We came in with a mindset of wanting to limit the minutes of some of our usual starters as we have a big game on Saturday against Wesley College.  We were able to keep most of them around 45 minutes and got some pretty strong performances from some of the guys that have not played as much recently.

With eight games now remaining in CAC play, our focus is on finishing in the top 4 and getting a home playoff game and possibly a bye for the first round.

Bobcats Use Strong 2nd Half to Win CAC Opener

Freshman Kelvin Tata

Saturday night we opened CAC play with a tough road contest at Marymount University.  We fell behind early, but used a strong 2nd half performance to win the game 2-1.

We always seem to struggle to get off to good starts when we visit Marymount.  The last time we were down there we fell behind 3-0 before coming from behind for the 4-3 win.

This time was no different as we surrendered a penalty kick mid-way through the half and found ourselves down 1-0 to the Saints.  We had a lot of time on the ball, but were not patient enough with our distribution and forced a lot of passes that resulted in turnovers.

The second half we picked up the tempo and ball movement.  The short, crisp, passing game was much more effective and the offense began to create opportunities.

Just five minutes into the 2nd half Kelvin Tata received a long service from Sergio Gomez and slotted the ball past the keeper to tie the game at one all.

Eleven minutes later Guy Nabo netted his team leading 6th goal of the season after Hunter Jarmon and Sergio Gomez combined on a nice combination that allowed Gomez to get to the end line and find Nabo in the box.

It was important to start CAC play off with a win and the come from behind result on the road was a good confidence boost for the boys.  We are now 6-2 and have our final non-conference game on Thursday at Penn St. Altoona before returning home on Saturday for a CAC match against Wesley.

Frostburg Loses First Road Match

Tuesday afternoon we suffered our first away loss of the season as we were defeated by Hood College 2-1.

I thought we had a decent focus in warm-ups, but we came out a little complacent in our speed of play and we lost focus on an early set piece.

Just six minutes into the game Hood was awarded a corner kick.  They won the first ball at the near post with a flick and then beat us to the second ball for the games first goal.  That's a play where we need to be more engaged and cannot get out worked in our own box.

Guy Nabo scored his team leading 5th goal of the season just two minutes later when he out muscled a Hood defender for a loose ball in the box and slotted home the shot.

Later in the half a Hood defender miss-hit a cross and the ball sailed to the back post and went in just over the out-stretched arms of goalkeeper Hassan Mostafa.  It was just one of those goals where there is nothing that could have been done about it.

The second half we came out and controlled the tempo of the game.  Hood was limited in their possessions in our half of the field.  We possessed well, we switched the point of attack well, but we struggled to create genuine scoring opportunities.

The Hood defenders worked extremely hard and blocked several shots with their bodies and caught our guys mid swing and stuffed several shots before we could get them off.  We finally thought we had gotten one back when KJ Davis directed in a header from Kelvin Tata, but he was ruled off-sides. The video was in-conclusive, but it looks like KJ's run was made from behind the ball.

We need to forget about this game and get focused on our CAC opener when we will face a much improved Marymount team this Saturday at 7:30pm at Long Bridge Park in Arlington, VA.

Caro Selected CAC Defensive Player of the Week

Freshman GK Carlos Caro

YORK, Pa. – The Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) announced its weekly honors Monday, and Frostburg State freshman goalkeeper Carlos Caro has been selected as the men's soccer Defensive Player of the Week.
 
Caro stopped five shots last week in his first collegiate start, a 2-0 shutout of Washington & Jefferson. Caro made three saves in the second half and the Bobcats scored goals in the 56^th and 62^nd minutes to earn their fifth shutout of the season.
 
Caro has appeared in two games this fall and has played nearly 110 minutes in net.
 
Frostburg State, currently 5-1 on the season, travels to Hood tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 pm.