photo by Christine Cestra
Junior midfielder Matt Buckley fights off a player for Geneva on Sept. 18. Geneva beat the Pioneers 1-0.
Celebration was in order this past Saturday for the men’s soccer team. After playing four games in eight days, the Pioneers ended their week with one of the biggest wins of the season so far.
They started off on Sept. 13, winning against Northwestern Ohio in overtime, 2-1.
The Pioneers then traveled to play against West Virginia Tech on Tuesday Sept. 16 in a non-conference game.
Senior forward Lucas Silva was the lead scorer for the game, getting the Pioneers the 2-0 lead they needed in the first 12 minutes of the game.
Silva was also the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week. Zach Borzovoy and Paul Carr were named the KIAC Men’s Soccer Defensive Players of the Week.
The Pioneers led the game in shots 10-8 against West Virginia Tech, with WV getting a shot in before the game ended, leaving the score 2-1.
Point Park then moved back to Highmark Stadium for a home game against Geneva College.
Geneva took the win in the non-conference game, winning 1-0.
The Golden Tornadoes defense held up against the Pioneers’ offense, even with all the free-kick and throw in opportunities that Point Park had.
There were 36 total fouls during the game against Geneva, 22 of those fouls came in the first half.
The best opportunity that the Pioneers had to score was when a Geneva player had accidently touched the ball before he meant to for a free-kick, and captain junior Jonty Loukes raced in to take the ball.
It was Loukes and the Golden Tornadoes keeper, who was ready for the approach and played the ball off of Loukes’ foot, and ruined any chances of a goal.
“I wasn’t really thinking,” Loukes said. “I was looking for my teammate who was trailing behind me. It got too late to make the pass so I took the shot. Unfortunately, the keeper made the save. That’s soccer. I think we dominated the game and we were the better team, but we failed to capitalize on the chances we created.”
Point Park then moved on to the biggest victory of the season against Rio Grande this past Saturday.
The Pioneers got the lead in the second half from goals made by junior forwards Lucas Godinho and Max Flick.
“Rio Grande came to play against us as the favorite team to win,” Godinho said. “However, it was so impressive how united we were in the field that we reversed this situation and the goal was just a result of this union.”
Flick shared the same excitement as Godinho over scoring.
“It was a great feeling for our team beating one of the top ranked teams in the nation,” Flick said. “This past week has definitely taken a toll on our legs, but we have two weeks to recover now until our next game so we should be ready to go.”
Rio Grande landed a goal in the final three minutes of the game, but the Pioneers kept their defense on point to make sure it did not happen again.
Point Park is now 5-2-0 overall and 1-0-0 KIAC. The next game is not for another two weeks, hosting against KIAC opponent Cincinnati Christian on Oct. 4 at 12:30 p.m.
