Box Score Buffalo, NY – Following their first conference win of the season on Tuesday, the D'Youville men's soccer team suffered a loss to the visiting La Roche Redhawks by the score of 4-1 Saturday afternoon.
D'Youville nearly took the lead just over half a minute into the game with a shot from sophomore Conner Ward (San Diego, CA/Cathedral Catholic) missing the goal just high. The Redhawks would then begin to mount pressure on the Spartan defense until their offense broke through for the first goal of the game.
In the 18th minute, La Roche broke the 0-0 tie on a shot to the side netting off a nice through ball. Just over a minute later, the Redhawks doubled their lead to 2-0 after a shot rang off the crossbar and fell to the foot of a Redhawk player in front of goal.
The firestorm of goals would continue in the 20th minute, but this time it would be D'Youville putting a goal on the board. After missing an opportunity in the first minute of the game, Ward redeemed himself by burying his first goal of the season with a laser from outside the box.
Ward's goal would cut the deficit in half, and the two teams would head into the half with the Redhawks leading 2-1.
La Roche would add to their lead 6 minutes into the second half on a penalty kick, bringing the score to 3-1. The Spartans would have their chances throughout the second half, but were unable to capitalize on them to bring the game within reach. The Redhawks added another goal in the 78th minute to bring their lead to 4-1 and would win the game by that final score.
Coming off his game winning goal against Pitt.-Bradford on Tuesday, Ben Neuss (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South) led the team with 3 shots. Brandon Pauly (Owego, NY/Owego) and Conner Ward each had 2 shots, with Ward scoring his first goal of the season.
The men will hit the road for their next game, heading to Erie, PA to play the Penn State-Behrend Lions on Wednesday, October 21st.
