BALTIMORE, Md. - Old Dominion men’s soccer found a late winner from junior forward Lewis Rourke in the 78th minute and came away with a 1-0 victory in enemy territory on Friday night at the Retriever Soccer Park.
“We needed to grind one out tonight and we did,” said ODU head coach Tennant McVea. “We looked more organized and prioritized the right things.”
Rourke got himself on the end of a broken play after a long pass fell at his feet from Marcelo Randolf, the native of Nottingham, England was able to capitalize on the Retrievers (4-1-1) mental lapse by finding the far left side of the net to give ODU (2-2-2) the 1-0 lead in the 78th minute. The Retrievers had two corner kicks in quick succession a few minutes later. ODU’s Teagan Dunne made a great block on the first and Michael Statham made a crucial save on the second attempt to deny UMBC any light back into the game.
“UMBC are a good side,” added McVea. “We created the better chances in the game, and we deserved it. We’ve had three long road trips in 10 days and are looking forward to getting home.”
Both teams had one shot on goal in what was an uneventful first half. ODU had a great opportunity with three minutes remaining with Alex Kryazhev on the ball and Miguel Menedez to his side, two on one with the keeper. But UMBC’s goalkeeper Emigdio Lopez intercepted a side pass to Menendez to break up the goal scoring opportunity.
ODU opened the second half with a cross from Eberle finding Menendez at the far post who headed it to the center of the goal, but a Retriever defender Yigit Kilic was able to react and cleared the ball off the line only three minutes after the kickoff. UMBC’s Ricky Shissler had a crack at goal in the 54th minute but missed wide left. Randolf also had a shot go wide right in the 67th minute. Jago Lott returned to his old stomping grounds and had a great match against the Retrievers, he broke up play and controlled the midfield for the Monarchs. He had one shot miss high right in the 74th minute before ODU took the lead through Rourke.
The Monarchs ended the night with 12 shots, five on goal, and two corner kicks. UMBC finished with six shots, two on goal, and five corners. ODU’s backline of Dunne, Watt, Aktan, and Randolf played the entire match as well as Lott in the midfield. Kryazhev had two attempts on goal but could not find the back of the net. Junior transfer Miguel Menendez came off the bench and played 53 minutes, he had three shots and one attempt on goal. Otu Bisong and Kosuke Yoshikawa played their first minutes of action for the pair of freshmen.
Old Dominion senior goalkeeper Statham played the full 90 minutes in net and came away with two saves and the clean sheet. UMBC’s Lopez made three saves and conceded the lone goal of the match.
UP NEXT
The Monarchs begin Sun Belt Conference play on September 19 at 7 p.m. against Georgia Southern at the ODU Soccer Stadium.