By Pat Tintle
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s soccer team hosted Virginia Commonwealth University under the lights Sunday at the Marra Sports Complex, but despite the home field advantage, the Bonnies surrendered their seventh straight loss.
Undefeated in the Atlantic 10, the Rams took the lead in the fourteenth minute on a goal from junior Dennis Castillo, who knocked in a header from a corner kick. The Bonnies were unable to answer, as they ended up losing 1-0.
“It’s disappointing that we couldn’t defend that,” Coach Mel Mahler said, referring to Castillo’s goal. “But we certainly created chances to get goals, we just can’t finish.”
VCU, now 6-7-4 (3-0-3, A-10), finished the match with fifteen shots on goal while the Bonnies were held to six. The Bonnies have not scored a goal in five games.
“The guys have to execute,” Mahler said. “We’re getting the ball in front of the goal, we have opportunities and we’re just not scoring. Part of it is due to our inability to finish, players who don’t have the ability to finish goals as well as not being focused when that opportunity arises. We’re having success in some of those areas in training, but we’re not seeing it in matches.”
Although the team was not able to post a goal, Mahler was pleased with the Bonnies defensive strategy against second-place VCU.
“We’re playing better,” Mahler said. “We’re communicating better. Last week against Buffalo, we were just out of position, we weren’t communicating with each other and we let in some really soft goals. We addressed that through training, and I was encouraged by that. That’s the goal for the next three games; good defending and find a way to score.”
Senior defender Alex Thomas, although disappointed by the loss, recognized that the team stayed strong against a competitive team.
“It was probably one of our better games,” Thomas said. “We connected a lot of passes and made some opportunities. (Defensively) we kept our shape and we tracked everybody that came back. A lot of it was stopping serves from coming into the box.”
With the Bonnies sitting on a 1-12 (0-5, A-10) record, the team will look to end their losing streak as they travel to Philadelphia on Oct. 31 to take on A-10 rival La Salle (5-7-2, 1-2-1 A-10) at 7 p.m.
With only three games left in the season, Mahler wants to end a losing campaign with resilience.
“We’re going to go out and keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Mahler said. “That’s keep creating chances and try to get a ball in the back of the net.”
Thomas stated the team wants to keep the same defensive mentality that they played with against VCU.
“With La Salle, we’re going to go at them the same way we went against VCU and George Washington and hope for the best,” Thomas said.
