CCRI ROUNDUP

Knights soccer still looking for first win

Posted 9/11/14

The CCRI men’s soccer team lost a heartbreaker 1-0 Sunday afternoon to an extremely talented Essex County College (N.J.) team at the Flanagan Campus in Lincoln. With the loss, the Knights fell to …

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CCRI ROUNDUP

Knights soccer still looking for first win

Posted

The CCRI men’s soccer team lost a heartbreaker 1-0 Sunday afternoon to an extremely talented Essex County College (N.J.) team at the Flanagan Campus in Lincoln. With the loss, the Knights fell to 0-2-1 on the season.

With hot and humid conditions for their second game in two days, head coach Gabe Toro went with a new look in the starting lineup for the Knights. This was a combination of resting players due to the heat and seeing what kind of depth he had against tough competition.

Other than a goal off of a corner kick early in the first half, CCRI played Essex evenly, with both teams limiting offensive chances. Junior Robert (Providence) received a yellow card right before the end of the half and he did not come back in for the rest of the game. By staying out of the game, the Knights lost a valuable asset on the offensive side of the ball. 

Toro noted that he was very happy with his players and how they performed, particularly Zachary Bromage (Warwick) defensively.

“I’m still looking for more consistency out of the midfield positions and I feel that they need to find confidence in their game in order to make the overall team perform better,” Toro said. “Defensively, the team played well, but with dynamic forwards like Evan Gaudreau (North Kingstown) and Robert, they need balls fed into them so they can get more quality reps offensively.”

The Knights to take on Massasoit Community College on Wednesday, with results unavailable at press time.

Lady Knights defeat

Essex County in OT

The CCRI Lady Knights soccer team hosted the Wolverines of Essex County College from Newark, NJ for a match-up of top northeast schools on Sunday and won 3-2 in an overtime thriller. With the victory, CCRI improved to 2-1 on the season.

Sophomore midfielder Carla Porras (Narragansett) scored the game-winning goal in the second minute of the second overtime period, giving the CCRI women’s soccer team their first home victory on the young season. Sophomore midfielder Stepheny Perez (Providence) was awarded a free kick about 25 yards out from the Essex goal. She put up a beautiful ball that appeared to be going into the upper left top corner of the goal but Essex goalkeeper Alexandra Desgagne went up high to try to catch the ball. She got her hands on it but couldn’t control it, but Porras attacked the goal to be in the right place at the right time and bury the ball into the back of the Essex goal.

Early in the match, CCRI controlled the play. In the 31st minute of play, Perez got the Lady Knights the lead on a direct free kick as she placed a powerful shot high and over the head of Desagne. However, Essex gained some momentum when Perez was issued a yellow card for a pushing infraction. With about five minutes left in the half, Essex’s Mayra Quintana broke past the Lady Knights defense and tied the score as she lofted the ball into the CCRI net over the head of freshman keeper Jennifer Kilburn (Norton, Mass.). 

In the ninth minute of the second half, Paula Viana scored on a pass from Jodeen Whyte to give Essex a 2-1 lead. 

In the 40th minute of play, CCRI freshman Amber Duhamel (Pawtucket) tied the score at 2-2 as she lofted the ball over the goalie’s head and into the goal. 

In the first 10 minute overtime period, CCRI had the better chances but couldn’t convert. However just a little over the first minute of play in the second overtime period Porras gave the Lady Knights the victory.

“Our goalkeeper Jennifer Kilburn was once again solid in goal our defense was pretty solid too,” said CCRI head coach Dennis Grassini. “Essex is a good team who passes the ball quite well.  They play a physical type game but our team handled that well today.”

CCRI was scheduled to play again Wednesday, with results unavailable at press time.

Men’s soccer goes 0-1-1 in first two games

The CCRI Men’s Soccer team lost their home opener to the No. 12 ASA Avengers Saturday afternoon, surrendering three unanswered goals in the second half to fall 3-1. Last Wednesday, CCRI tied Bunker Hill Community College in its season opener 2-2.

Against ASA, Junior Robert (Providence) capitalized off of an ASA defender’s mistake, collecting the ball and firing it past the keeper to give the Knights a 1-0 lead. 

However, the heat started to catch up with CCRI in the second half. A mental error about 20 minutes into the second half allowed ASA to tie the game 1-1. The Knights then had an own goal to give the Avengers a 2-1 lead, before ASA buried another with just a few minutes remaining to put the contest out of reach for CCRI.

Against BHCC, CCRI came out firing on all cylinders in the early stages of the game, with Jackson Acciaoli (Greenville) making a nice pass to Robert, who fired a shot past the keeper to give the Knights a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute. It didn’t take long for CCRI to make it 2-0. In the 13th minute, Robert collected his own rebound and made a nice feed to Evan Gaudreau (Jamestown), who buried the ball into the back of the net to extend the Knights’ lead.

Down the stretch, however, the Knights failed to possess the ball. Because of this, CCRI allowed Bunker Hill to creep back into the game with a goal at the end of the first half. The eventual tying goal then came off of a set piece in the second half that found its way past Knights’ keeper Alex Padilla (Cranston), making it 2-2.

“I’m looking forward to the team growing in confidence and playing with more belief in each other,” said head coach Gabe Toro. “For the first game, we showed the ability to defend well and put balls in the back of the net with a powerful offensive front.”

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