goal in Saturday’s win at Kerr Stadium. PHOTO BY JIM DEVINNEY
The Roanoke College soccer team begins a stretch of three straight road games with a trip to Averett University on Wednesday of this week.
The Maroons are at Mary Washington on Saturday, then take a swing to Southern Virginia on Wednesday of next week before returning home to host Lynchburg College on Family Weekend, September 23.
The Maroons made their home debut last weekend, splitting two games in the All Sports Café Roanoke Invitational. On Saturday they beat Penn State-Abington, 2-0, but dropped a 2-1 decision to the College of New Jersey on Sunday.
On Saturday against Penn State Brandon Bauer broke the game open with an unassisted goal just over seven minutes into the game to give Roanoke a 1-0 advantage. Out of the half, Bauer fed Chris Pikunas who put it on the left side of the net to extend their the lead to two. Roanoke owned a 19-3 advantage in shots and an 8-0 edge in corners on the night.
The Maroon defense held strong as Nick Tadros only had to make one save on the night.
On Sunday TCNJ got on the board off a goal from Kevin Nelan 18 minutes into the game to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Aidan Nagy had a chance to tie the game in the 30th minute but his shot was turned away by Lion keeper Michael Kayal.
The score remained that way through half time. Atticus Cooke had another chance to get the equalizer in the 50th minute when Kayal was drawn out of his net but Cooke’s chip shot went over the crossbar. The score stayed that way until the 70 minute mark when Peter Dresch found the back of the net to double the lead for TCNJ.
With 1:24 on the clock, Roanoke brought it within one off a penalty kick from Cole Thornton following a foul off a corner to make it 2-1. Roanoke held an 8-7 edge in shots and a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks.
With the split the Maroons are now 3-1-1on the season.