With over 1,500 fans in attendance wearing a black shirt to support the team in a “blackout” game against arch-rival Loyola, the men’s soccer team failed to disappoint and have now won their eighth straight game to open the season.
For just the second time every UMBC got the best of the Greyhounds as Loyola leads the all-time series 18-2-2. But tonight UMBC proved to be the better team and beat them 1-0 to get to 8-0.
Even though UMBC was outplayed for the majority of the game, the defense lead by freshman goalkeeper Phil Saunders shutdown the Loyola offense and shut them out to preserve the win. It is very rare to see a freshman making such an impact in goal, but Saunders is looking natural out there and recorded six saves, three of which came off shots from inside five yards in the final two minutes.
“I just play the game and instinct takes over,” he said. “I don’t think about much I just think about the game and playing it.”
Early in the season the defense was getting lucky because of a high scoring offense, but lately the defense has been playing near perfect soccer, as shown by three straight shutouts against their three toughest opponents this season: Towson (1-0), Drexel (3-0), and Loyola (1-0).
“When you start out the season you have to get used to playing with certain people,’ said Vince Savarese, who transferred from Loyola before the start of his freshman year. “It just seems that everybody is hitting their groove at the right time. We’re doing well and hopefully we’ll keep the shutouts going and hopefully we’ll keep on this roll.”
But as good as the defense played, the game out have been completely different if Saunders was not back in goal. His poise under pressure has earned him 29 saves on the year while allowing just four goals (87.8 save%). He now also has four shutouts on the season and three straight.
“Today was really the day he proved himself as someone who can handle all the pressure and there is no question we’re not scared anymore about having a freshman in goal,” Savarese said. “He really stepped up today and he just had one hell of a game.”
With Loyola out playing UMBC in the early parts of the game, the 44th minute completely reversed the momentum of the game. At that moment Andrew Bulls scored his tenth goal of the season after converting free kick from 23 yards out but knocking it into the lower right corner of the goal and immediately following that he and his teammates ran over to the student section to celebrate the 1-0 lead, which ultimately held to be the final score.
“In any game were you’re playing a Baltimore school it’s going to be a battle because you’re trying to prove who is the best in Baltimore and it may not really be a soccer game for the first 40 minutes,” Bulls said. “But as soon as we got that goal it calmed us down. We reacted to them early and then we got that goal and we started playing soccer.”
Even though some do not believe in a home-field advantage, the UMBC team does and admittedly feed off the crowd of 1,505, who were mostly dressed in black. The 1,505 is the most people in a game since at least 2003, when the records stop.
“It was a great crowd and the atmosphere was what I expected because it was two Baltimore teams,” said coach Pete Caringi. “I knew we would get a lot of local fans but I was happy with how the UMBC fans came out to support us wearing their black and I think the team feed off their energy.”
While an 8-0-0 record may be the best in UMBC history the team is not finished yet and they have much higher aspirations.
“We all played hard and everyone knows it in the locker room,” Bulls said. You can just feel this vibe and every one worked hard and every one gave it their all but right now at 8-0 you can’t stop us. We’re going to the top.”
Further coverage of this even will be featured in the Sept. 29 issue of The Retriever Weekly.
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