Mens soccer on a 4 game winning streak

Garrett Collins

The SUNY Plattsburgh men’s soccer team came into Tuesday’s game versus the SUNY Canton Kangaroos with a record of 7-6-1 and right in the thick of things in the SUNYAC Playoff Picture. Before Tuesday’s matchup, the Cardinals were riding a three game winning streak against fellow SUNYAC foes, Fredonia, SUNY Brockport and SUNY Geneseo. In order to prove that they could play with the top contenders in the conference, the Cardinals needed to prove they could lock down the opposing team’s offense. What the Cardinals were able to do on Tuesday was more than enough proof that they were a legitimate playoff contender versus Kangaroos only allowed one shot from the team the entire game.

Plattsburgh controlled possession for most of the game, not allowing Canton to get any shots off in the first half compared to the 13 shots in the first half of the game. One of those 13 shots found the back of the net, and it came at 18:09 in the first half, off a beautiful feed from the Senior Midfielder Yusuke Tanda. He fed the ball from half field to teammate, Cameron Richards, who then chipped it to the wide open streaking Dylan Shalvey who had an easy one on one with the Canton goaltender and was able to finish to take the quick 1-0 lead early in the first half. The goal from the sophomore midfielder is now his fourth of the year and is his first entry on the score sheet since going off for a hat trick back in September against Alfred. The Plattsburgh defense had an easy first half where they didn’t have to sweat much. Goalie Teddy Healy didn’t even have to attempt a save, and Canton didn’t have a single corner kick for the entire first half. The rest of first half would prove to be uneventful as Plattsburgh controled possession and the lead going into the second 45 minutes of the game.  

In order to get back into the game, Canton would need to find a big push from its offense to get the ball moving into the net. For the Kangaroos, it was much of the same story from the first half. The team once again could not muster up any offence being held to one shot the entire half. At 51:06 in the second half that was saved by Heaky who didn’t have any work to do the entire game.  In the Latter part of the half at 82:36,  first year midfielder John Hayes would find the back of the net to seal the game. That would become his third goal on the season and the third out of this eventual four game winning streak.  Plattsburgh notched another massive shooting stat putting up a staggering 16 shots in the second half alone. Finishing the day with a shot differential of 28 (29-1).

Scoring and getting wins at the right time is something that this Plattsburgh men’s soccer team has figured out as it has won the last four games in a row and is sitting at No.6 in the SUNYAC conference.  With one game left being an important game in the conference against Potsdam Saturday Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. in Plattsburgh, also being their senior night. Hopefully the pressure of this last game can help the team get a decisive win against a beatable opponent and punch their ticket into the SUNYAC playoffs.