Rowan men’s soccer ended their game against Ramapo College on Saturday, Oct. 15, in a 0-0 tie—the team’s fourth draw of the season.
This tie now puts Rowan’s record at 1-2-3 in New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) play this season and 6-5-4 overall. A huge positive from the game for Rowan was that sophomore goalie Dylan Aportela followed up on his previous game’s shutout with his second one in a row.
“I’m stoked about my performance today,” Aportela said. “I have to give most of the credit to the back line. They held it down amazingly today.”
Even though the matchup ended in a draw, Aportela is still feeling good about the game.
“I mean a tie is not bad,” Aportela said. “Even though we had opportunities and we just bobbled the ball a bit, we just need to fix that going forward.”
On the negative side, the Profs were stagnant on offense throughout most of the game. Team captain and starting forward Chad Yates had a theory on what went wrong for the team.
“I think we came into this game too relaxed,” Yates said. “Their record [2-6-3] does not reflect what type of team they are. Especially after the last game where we put four goals on the board, we might have been a bit too complacent and cocky.”
Rowan had 14 shots over the course of the game but was not able to convert on any of their chances.
“We gotta score goals,” Head Coach Scott Baker said. “I mean the game before we scored four and this game we did not score. We just have to come into the game hunting for goals. We created a bunch of chances, we need people to be hungry enough to convert those chances. Unfortunately, it is not the result we are looking for. I think we did put in the effort, but in the 18 is where it counts.”
Midway through the second half with neither team scoring, the tension between both squads began to build. That tension finally came to a head when shoving began to take place between Gil Ferreira of Rowan and Thiago Stakkhbaum of Rampano, which led to both teams getting into it.
“I will be honest, as an emotional player myself, it’s tough,” Yates said. “It’s a tie game, things are getting late in the second half and not much is going on for either team. You know the emotions build up and two guys get into it. At the end of the day, it’s about our team stepping up for one another and having each other’s backs. It probably looked worse than what it was, nobody was going to throw hands or anything.”
Coach Baker believes that what happened tonight was uncommon and not a part of the identity of his team.
“This year has been better than most,” Coach Baker said. “That was probably the worst that it has been all season. It is starting to become our habit to not be that way. I think once we took a few deep breaths and regained our normal, everything was fine. Same thing with the other team, I have not seen anything too bad from them either. Hopefully, the old-school NJAC is history.”
This tie now has Rowan tied for seventh place in the NJAC this season. Rowan will look to improve their standing when facing off against the last-place team in the NJAC, The College of New Jersey, on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
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