By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: Cat Scholl
HUNTINGDON, Pa. The Juniata College men's soccer team bounced back after its first loss of the season, beating Hood College 3-1 to improve to 6-1-1 on the year. The Eagles got a late first half goal and two second-half tallies to put themselves comfortably in the lead. Hood answered back late in the game, but Juniata did not allow them any momentum and closed out the match with the win.
"I'm happy with the way things ended up," said head coach Dan Dubois. "The first half was frustrating. We got the goal at the end, which was great, but we weren't playing intelligently. The second half was much better. I thought we played heads up soccer. Looking for what was going to work for us. Making sure the guys were hustling to get to spots. It worked out pretty well."
The Eagles broke the scoreless time in the 43rd minute when junior Patrick McEvoy (Avon, N.Y./Avon Central) notched his first goal of the season. Classmate Nick Stone-Weiss (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted) chased down a Hood defender in the far corner and won the ball. McEvoy was there to receive the centering cross and nailed the ball home inside the near post to put Juniata up 1-0 with just two minutes left in the half.
"We made a couple of substitutions at the end of the first half," said Dubois. "Pat coming up with the goal was great. He got himself in the right place and we found him. It was a beautiful play."
The Eagles started the second half at full speed and added an insurance goal just ten minutes in. Freshman Aaron Kulig (Green Lane, Pa./Boyertown) won the ball on the Hood side of midfield and played a through ball into freshman Dani Meyer-Arrivillaga (Durham, N.C./Carolina Friends). He made one touch of the ball around the oncoming goalkeeper and placed his shot into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Juniata continued to pressure the Blazers defense and scored again just over 12 minutes later. Sophomore Jonah Ruggiero (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) blasted a shot far post that the Hood goalkeeper just got a hand to for the save. The rebound came right out to Stone-Weiss who finished his shot inside the near post for a 3-0 Juniata lead.
"Things kept going in the second half," added Dubois. "We got some more energy and got more guys on the field and were able to push a little more."
As the rain picked up the Blazers tried to mount a comeback. Hood scored with ten minutes remaining in the match when the rebound off a save from freshman Jonathan Phillips (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) found the foot of Hood's Mitchell Mattox for the goal. Despite giving up the one goal, Phillips was strong in net today for the Eagles making eight saves from the Blazers 19 shots.
"[Jonathan] had to come up with one really big save and he did," said Dubois. "He made some other solid routine saves throughout the game. When he was called upon to make one outstanding save, he did. Which was great."
Juniata outshot the Blazers 22-19 and won the corner kick battle, 5-3. The Eagles face Pitt-Bradford tomorrow before returning home to host Penn State Altoona Tuesday, Sept. 24th and 4 p.m.
Follow Your Eagles! Stay up-to-date on your Juniata College Eagles by following us on twitter (@JuniataEagles) and on Facebook (Juniata Eagles).
