Stony Brook men’s soccer fell, 2-0, to Monmouth University on a rain-soaked Friday afternoon, Oct. 20, at LaValle Stadium. The loss moved the Seawolves into a tie for first place in the CAA with the Hawks entering the final week of the regular season.
Stony Brook kept Monmouth off the scoreboard in the first half before giving up two second-half goals. The Hawks enjoyed the majority of scoring chances in the first 45 minutes, finishing the first half with a 10-4 edge in shots and forcing Edmond Kaiser to turn away four potential scoring chances. The Hawks also saw a shot in the final minute of the half ring off the crossbar.
Monmouth broke through early on in the second half, converting on a set piece. Olle Brorsson headed home the first goal of the match after two of his teammates connected to head passes his way at the near post.
After Kaiser made a spectacular save on a would-be goal by Zakowski, it was again Brorsson who got the best of Kaiser. This time it was on a corner fed in by Erik Reis that found Brorsson’s head and eventually the back of the net to double the Hawks’ lead in the 55th minute.
The Seawolves totaled 12 shots in the loss, with three of them on goal. Despite ending the second half with an 8-5 edge in shots, Stony Brook was ultimately outshot 15-12 and 7-3 in shots on goal.
“I thought it was a competitive game; these games at the end of the season, there’s a lot on the line. Ultimately, it came down to set pieces,” head coach Ryan Anatol noted postgame. “I don’t think we did a good enough job of defending them. We’ve got to do a little bit better to get the result.”
The team closed out its non-conference slate with its home finale on October 24 against the Lafayette Leopords. It was also the Seawolves’ senior night where graduating seniors Olsen Aluc, Iker Alvarado, Bas Beckhoven, Wilber Gomez, Trevor Harrison, Selcuk Kahveci, Sean Towey, Johan Velez and Carlos Zabarburu were honored. Results of the game were not available as of press time.