Matt Ferris
Asst. Sports Editor
Framingham State Men’s Soccer opened up its season Sept. 1 with a non-conference matchup on the road against MIT.
Both teams had several scoring opportunities during regulation, but neither team could capitalize on their chances.
Despite being dominated on the stat sheets by the Engineers, the Rams were able to survive through 90 minutes of regulation, keeping it scoreless and sending it to overtime.
In overtime in the 98th minute, the Rams turned the ball over in their own defensive half of the field.
Austin Freel crossed the ball for the Engineers, to his teammate Joshua Wilson at the top of the box. Wilson ripped a shot that sailed in the back of the net just out of the reach of Framingham’s diving keeper Josh Arno.
MIT outshot the Rams 29 to seven and also had plenty more chances on corner kicks as they racked up 11 to Framingham’s one.
Josh Arno had six saves while Cory Cardeiro and Igor Pessoni each had 2 shots on goal for the Rams. With the loss, the Rams drop to 0-1 on the young season.
Looking to avenge their opening day loss the Rams took the field again on Sept. 5 in their home-opener against UMass Dartmouth.
The Corsiars came out hot, scoring early in the 4th minute of the game.
Junior Robert scored the goal for the Corsiars on a header that darted passed Rams keeper Arno. The Corsiars maintained this 1-0 lead for the next 79 minutes until, Rams senior, Cardeiro nailed a deep shot into the top corner of the net in the 83rd minute of action. This was the senior’s first goal of the season.
Just under two minutes later, the Corsiars struck back with a goal in the 84th minute. Stephen Teixeira of UMass Dartmouth, scored the goal on a play that was strikingly similar to the goal Cardeiro scored just a minute earlier.
Regaining the lead 2-1 with under ten minutes to play, the Corsiars didn’t look back and spoiled the Rams home opener.
For the Rams, Cardeiro led the way with six shots on goal, and Arno had three saves.
The shot battle was about even with Framingham getting 17 shots and UMass Dartmouth getting 15. With another loss the Rams drop to 0-2.
The Rams took the field again on Sept. 10, this time in an away match against an non-conference WPI squad.
The game was scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. but due to lightning in the area, the game was delayed for a little over an hour.
After an uneventful first 36 minutes, WPI struck first. Pav Christidis delivered the first punch for WPI after being subbed in just three minutes earlier.
The goal came at the 37:10 mark of the Jrst half, and gave WPI a 1-0.
This lead would hold for about 20 minutes before the Rams netted their first goal of the game. The goal came off a penalty kick by Rams senior Cardeiro in the 56th minute of action. Cardeiro recorded his second goal of the season. From this point on, it was all WPI.
WPI finished the game with a shot total of 10-0 over the Rams.
This proved to be too much for Rams keeper Arno who let in the game winner in the 87th minute of action.
Ryan Tropeano converted a header for his first career goal. This turned out to be the game winner. Arno played very well for the Rams with 11 saves in the game.
This loss drops the Rams to a disappointing 0-3 to begin the season.