Men’s soccer loses midweek match, 3-0, against Adelphi

The Columbia men’s soccer team (5-8-2) suffered its worst home defeat of the current campaign as Adelphi (9-6-1) triumphed 3-0 last evening. It was an unpleasant night for the Lions, who struggled to convert their 17 chances in the fixture.

The home side made one change to the starting line-up at Yale on Saturday, with senior Bayode Adafin returning to lead the line in place of sophomore forward Will Stamatis. It was the visiting Panthers, though, that made the first attacking mark with two goals in the early stages of the affair.

In the 18th minute, a cross by Issa Tall picked out John Koutsounadis unmarked at the edge of the box, and the forward fired a low shot into the lower right corner of the net past Lions goalkeeper Alex Aurrichio to give Adelphi the lead.

Seven minutes later the advantage was doubled as Tall broke free of the exposed Lions’ defense, thanks to a pass by Alexander Kouznetsov, and deposited a shot past Aurrichio for the Panthers’ second of the night.

The Lions fought back mightily before the break, and, moments before the half-time whistle, first-years David Najem and Henning Sauerbier almost combined to find the breakthrough that would bring the home side back into the game. Sauerbier’s shot was saved, and the rebound fell invitingly to Najem. His effort from point-blank range seemed to strike a defender on its way out to safety, but the referee deemed it a goal-kick.

The impressive, solid defense that has served the Lions well this season was absent against the Panthers. It was not a case of individual errors, but rather a messy defensive display by the unit that proved costly for the Light Blue.

The visitors further increased their advantage shortly before the hour mark­—Michael Aquino put Brandon Stoneham clean through on goal, leaving number nine with the task of sliding the ball under Aurrichio.

The Panthers may have gotten the shutout, but by no means did they prevent the Lions from creating chances. Columbia had 17 shots over the course of the game, compared to the Panthers’ 11, with junior co-captain Mike Mazzullo and Stamatis each taking four shots and Sauerbier tallying three. Unfortunately for the home team, it was simply not clinical enough and could not get the better of Thorne Holder in Adelphi’s goal.

On another day Mazzullo could have been celebrating a brace, but the combative midfielder had the misfortune of striking the cross-bar on both occasions. He felt that the Lions lacked the intensity they needed in the opening stages. “I’m obviously very disappointed with the result,” he said. “We’ve got a good record at home and we were happy to be back here after Yale, and we had this marked as a very winnable game.”

“We just weren’t intense enough in the early stages, and we gave it away in the first half-hour. It’s never easy to play from that kind of position, but we fought till the end and really dominated the end of the first half. We had our chances in the second period as well, but when you go 2-0 down to a good team, it’s not going to be easy.”

The Lions are hoping to make amends this weekend when they travel to Boston to take on Harvard in the penultimate Ivy League game of the season for both teams.

Mazzullo believes they can bounce back in three days’ time in what is a crucial conference encounter against Harvard. “We have to take heart from the fact that we created a ton of chances, and have to forget about the defeat and move on,” he said. “We’ve got two days of training before we play them, and we’ve got to make a quick recovery and maintain our sharpness. It’s important to keep the intensity, enthusiasm, and will to play—and that should help get us a result in Boston.”

Kick-off against the Crimson is on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.