Men’s Soccer Falls to Metro State University, 0-1

Steven Petrov
The Paw Print

After their exciting 1:0 win on Friday, against Colorado School of Mines, the “Grizzlies” faced the current #3 in the RMAC conference Metro State University at Denver, on Sunday, October 13. The game started off difficultly for both of the teams, which were having trouble controlling the ball and building their attacks. However the “Roadrunners” were the more attacking team in the first half attempting 10 shots and placing only 1 on target, compared to the 2 shots off target for ASU. The first and only shot for the first half for Metro State came in the 37:58 of the game when Carloz Mendez found the free and unmarked Andy Lopez about 8 yards away from the goal. The Metro State forward just placed the ball in the net behind ASU’s goalkeeper Jared Wilson. Even though Wilson has been delivering some great performances for the “Grizzlies” this season, helping his team to get 5 shutouts so far, he was unable to react in the goal scoring situation due to the distance between the forward and the goal.
The ASU’s midfielders put up a great fight in the middle of the field, where Matt Anderson, Fabian Omana, and Hawken Hanna were trying to settle the game down and provide the “grizzlies” forwards with good goal scoring opportunities. Unfortunately for Coach Busen and his team, there weren’t many chances in front of the “Roadrunners” goal during the remainder of the first half. The second half started with MSU controlling the ball more and ASU trying to press the opponent in order to win the ball. Coach Busen used his regular subs in order to keep everyone fresh and maintain the press, and eventually the “Grizzlies” had a good goal scoring chance in the 71 min, which was a shot from Matthew Stefanko from the left wing. It caught the MSU goalkeeper, Keegan Hand, unprepared and he barely blocked the shot. The “Roadrunners” also had numerous chances in front of the ASU’s goal during the second half, and they were close to the goal couple of times, where in one of them the ASU defender Shane Wagner cleared the ball from the goal line keeping the “Grizzlies” hopes for a comeback. Sophomore Danny Arrubla was one of the most active attackers for MSU, having 4-5 opportunities throughout the game, but was unable to finish either of them.
With today’s loss the “Grizzlies” are currently with an overall record of 6-4-0 and RMAC record of 4-4-0, currently taking the 5th place in the conference. ASU’s next games are at home on the 18th of October against Regis University, and on October 20th against CSU Pueblo.