AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria University men's soccer team dropped their fourth game in a row, losing to the St. Thomas Bobcats 5-2 Wednesday night. The moral victory for the Gyrenes came as they were able to get a pair of goals past St. Thomas and go into halftime tied with the sixth ranked Bobcats. Unfortunately, it was the second half that would end AMU's hopes for an upset.
The first ten minutes of the game was full of excitement to get everyone in attendance at Gyrene Field up and on their feet. Just past the five-minute mark on the clock, Juan Parra got past the Bobcats defense with some nifty foot work and then shot the ball past a surprised St. Thomas goalie Franco Acerbi scoring the first goal of the game and giving Ave Maria a 1-0 lead. It was the first goal allowed by the Bobcats all season.
STU quickly responded, however. Just over four minutes later, Guido Cacciabue scored the first goal for the Bobcats and tied the game at 1.
The game settled down after the opening goals from both teams. For twenty minutes, St. Thomas took control of the ball and the momentum and the Gyrenes were forced to play defense a majority of the time. Luckily though, AMU was able to get a fast break down the field and into the offensive zone. Josh Gaeng then crossed the ball in front of the net to an open JP Pontarelli who buried it home to give the Gyrenes a 2-1 lead.
Unfortunately, St. Thomas responded quickly once again. This time just three minutes after Ave Maria took the lead, the Bobcats tied it up again with Tomas Persico scoring his second goal of the season.
The two teams went into halftime locked at 2, and hope was starting to build at Gyrene Field. Ave Maria has never defeated a top-10 team in its 13-year history, and here they were tied with the #6 Bobcats. Unfortunately, that record will have to be broken on another day.
In the second half, St. Thomas's defense tightened up and made it even tougher on the Gyrenes to retain possession in the attacking zone. On the other side of the field, the Bobcats berated the Gyrene defense with shots, outshooting Ave Maria 21-3 in the final 45 minutes.
In the 64th minute, St. Thomas took their first lead of the night with Persico's second goal of the game. Just two minutes later, Noah Tolcachier extended the Bobcats' lead to 4-2. St. Thomas then scored their fifth and final goal in the 78th minute off the foot of Pascal Agostini.
Towards the final minutes of the game, tensions started to boil over between the two teams. In the first half, the Gyrenes were assessed two yellow cards and the Bobcats got one. In the final ten minutes of the game, both teams got three more yellow cards, which led to one St. Thomas player getting a red card and being ejected from the game.
With the loss, the Gyrenes now fall to 4-4 and 0-2 in SUN play. They will get another chance to take down their first top-10 team as they travel out to West Palm Beach to take on the #7 ranked and reigning national champions, the Keiser Seahawks, on Saturday. Ave Maria then has one more road game at Webber before coming back home to take on the Warner Royals next Saturday.
