The Geneseo men’s soccer team split another set of conference games as the Knights rolled past SUNY New Paltz on Oct. 3, but were unable to defeat SUNY Oneonta on Saturday Oct. 4. The Knights extended their winning streak to three games in a row when they defeated New Paltz 3-1, with junior defender Terence McGovern, junior defender Brad Campion and senior forward Jason Iannone capitalizing on early opportunities in the first half against New Paltz.
Head coach Dominic Oliveri said that he was happy with the early lead that the Knights got against their opponents.
“New Paltz is one of those teams that can be tricky and we jumped on them early,” he said.
All the goals in the game were scored in the first half. Oliveri said that the wind played a big role in the game––in the first half, the wind was on the Knights’ side. Once the wind shifted in favor to New Paltz, Oliveri applauded his team’s defensive efforts.
“In the second half, New Paltz had the wind and it was a big advantage at times,” Oliveri said. “We had to defend and we defended really well in the second half. We really limited their chances.”
Despite cruising past New Paltz, the Knights were unable to carry the high energy of the victory over to the game against fifth-ranked Oneonta.
The Knights began the game sluggishly, getting outshot nine-to-five in the first half. Oneonta also scored two goals in the first half and was able to keep the Knights at bay until the Red Dragons conceded a penalty.
“I knew it was going to be a close game since Oneonta is the top team in our conference,” Oliveri said. “We were playing well so I thought it would be a really close game. The score indicates that it was a close game, but emotionally we could not keep up. That was the big disappointment for me.”
After senior midfielder Connor Beisner connected on a penalty kick, the Knights had time to tie the game. Unfortunately, they were not able to put the ball in the net again.
“Even when we made the game 2-1, we scored with 12 minutes left—which is an eternity in soccer—I thought it would bring a sense of urgency,” Oliveri said. “But even then, it wasn’t good enough.”
Heading into fall break, Oliveri is looking ahead to Geneseo’s next conference game against SUNY Brockport on Saturday Oct. 11.
“If we come against Brockport like we did against Oneonta, we’d get crushed,” Oliveri said. “I’m a firm believer in working hard. We just have to compete for 90 minutes––if we do that, we’ll be in every game.”