‘Cats fall short against Albany

It was a rainy afternoon as the University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team hosted Albany at Cowell Stadium on Sunday. Despite the poor weather, Albany shined on through as they came out and beat the Wildcats 3-1.

For most of the first half both teams were even, as both teams tied in shots with four apiece in the first half.

However, the deciding factor came 42 minutes into the game when Phillip Persson of Albany carried the ball into UNH’s box and picked the right side of the goal after a pass by Phil Denara. With that goal Albany would close the half with a 1-0 advantage.

The second half of play gave the Wildcats promise to even out the score, as they managed to fire 14 shots at Albany goaltender Tim Allen. But, despite New Hampshire’s high offensive attack the team only managed to produce one goal.

Albany managed to capitalize on its five chances, striking two goals late in the second half.

The first came at the 71 minute mark when Kristian Alexieff  utilized a sharp pass from Anthony Rozzano and fired a shot that came from several yards out from the right side of Travis Worra’s view, managing to grab the inside right of the goal. UNH fought back by nearly grabbing a quick goal a little over a minute later as Ugo Uche fired a shot that hit the top of the bar that put New Hampshire just inches from tying things up.

10 minutes after Uche’s missed opportunity, a speedy Pomare Te Anau flew past UNH defenders to produce a good amount of space for him to take a shot, which he did with ease as he surfaced the ball with high velocity to the top right of the goal.

This would seal an Albany victory, as New Hampshire could not capitalize the rest of the game. UNH outshot Albany 18-9 during the game.

After the loss UNH falls to 5-6-3 and 2-3-0 in American East play and Albany improves to 5-9-0 overall and 3-2-0 in the conference.

Being outplayed was the factor to UNH’s loss, head coach Rob Thompson highlighted.

“They played better than us, they capitalized on their scoring opportunities and we didn’t,” Thompson said. “We need to manage these games or else we are not going to win in this conference.”

UNH’s next game will be at Holy Cross on Tuesday at 7 p.m.