The Gannon University men’s soccer team kicked off its season with a long trip to West Virginia Thursday to take on the University of Charleston in an evening matchup.
Despite the men’s efforts, they came up short and lost 1-0. The Knights then had three days to recollect themselves and came back with a win against Notre Dame College on their home turf Sunday in overtime by a score of 3-2.
In the win over the Falcons, junior Leonardo Paiva opened up the scoring for Notre Dame with a goal in the 17th minute of play. That goal was answered by junior Knight Hamza Mourchid when he found the back of the net in the 32nd minute, tying the game at 1.
The back and forth scoring between the Falcons and Knights continued in the 61st minute with a goal by sophomore Reece Daly to put Notre Dame up by one with a score of 2-1.
Kicking it back to the Knights, junior midfielder Sergio Kobowane tied the game at 2-2 when he snuck it past the goalie in the 88th minute.
The score was at a 2-2 standstill until the end of the game and it was finally broken by Mourchid with his second goal of the night in the 100th minute to give the Knights a 3-2 overtime win.
Mourchid felt that the team that is more organized will win a game in overtime and that’s just what the Knights did.
“We can build from this performance to grow up as a team and hopefully we are going to confirm it next Friday and Saturday,” Mourchid said.
There wasn’t much scoring in the game against Charleston in comparison to the game against Notre Dame.
Given the loss, on a positive note, the Knights kept the Golden Eagles at bay by not letting them score in the first 87 minutes of play. At 87 minutes and 41 seconds of play, redshirt freshman Golden Eagle Freddie Tracy scored the only goal of the game, giving Charleston the win.
That was the only one of nine shots on goal that junior Manuel Mangu let past him throughout his time at goal. Gannon had four shots on goal, two of which were from Mourchid.
Gannon was outshot 16-5 in the game and it was the team’s fourth consecutive loss to Charleston. The Knights fell to 5-8-0 all-time against the Eagles.
The Knights are up for votes in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) preseason Top 25 poll.
The Knights’ next matchup is 1 p.m. Friday at Bloomsburg to take on the Huskies. Gannon is still champing at the bit for its home opener, which is on Sept. 17 against the Bald Eagles of Lock Haven University.
BRANDON JACES
