By Akin Taylor | October 17, 2022
The University at Albany men's soccer team lost in a blowout to defending America East Conference champions New Hampshire Wildcats 4-0 in the first game of their three game homestead.
UAlbany hosted the defending America East regular season champion New Hampshire on Friday in its first of two America East matchups. The Wildcats started the season ranked ninth nationally but suffered a tepid start and fell out of the rankings. In the latest rankings, they landed outside the top 25 after a six-game winning streak.
There were promising scoring opportunities for both teams early on. Sam Philip cleared the ball away just before the goal line after New Hampshire drove the ball deep into UAlbany's box in the second minute.
A well-defended throw-in by Chris Pinkham prompted Eli Goldman to head a cross down to Showunmi, who finished in the bottom right corner.
Minutes after scoring their first goal, New Hampshire netted their second. A quick free kick from Rory O'Driscoll bounced over the goal line just outside of the top left corner of UAlbany’s box.
In the 76th minute, O'Driscoll scored his second goal of the game, scoring on the volley inside the UAlbany box off a cross from Johann von Knebel.
The fourth and final goal came in the 86th minute for New Hampshire. A well-defended corner from Taig Healy led to Liam Bennett crossing the ball into the box. A cross was tipped past the UAlbany goalkeeper by Paul Mayer from within the six-yard box.
New Hampshire controlled 54% of the total possession. The Wildcats also outshot the Great Danes at a rate of 13-3, including 9-1 after halftime.
UAlbany head coach Trevor Gorman was disappointed but wanted his team to take positive moments from the match against a very talented team.
"New Hampshire is a top-level team that's as good as anyone in the country. When you play teams like that you have to be on top of your game for 90 minutes,” Gorman said. “We played an outstanding first 30 minutes executing our game plan. If we take the positive moments from tonight and learn the lessons we need to then we can have good matches in these coming 10 days."