Game 3-8-107: Men's Soccer vs. St. Francis

What: Men's Soccer vs. St. Francis

When: Saturday, August 25, 2012, 7:00 PM

Where: Morrone Stadium

Result: Win 1-0

This was the first regular season game of the year for men's soccer, so it was also the first Goal Patrol meeting. It was crowded, probably more crowded than it will be at any game the rest of the season. We probably had several hundred students, at least, at the Goal Patrol meeting. Then it was on to Morrone Stadium.

St. Francis warmups - why
the red?

When we arrived, St. Francis was warming up. They were wearing red uniforms. (See picture on left) This confused me because I distinctly recalled St. Francis wearing blue when we played them before. Several thoughts occurred to me - was I wrong? Had they changed their uniforms? Were we playing the other St. Francis? But it turns out, those were just their warm ups. Strange. They changed into blue uniforms for the actual game, per their school colors. But the red warmups looked like real uniforms. They had numbers only on the front, while the real uniforms had numbers only on the back, but they could easily have been interchanged. Is one the alternate away uniform or something, and they use it as warmups when they're not wearing it? I don't know. Anyway, you can view a photo of the blue game uniforms on this page as well.

St. Francis huddling in blue uniforms
before the game. 

Then the game started. We scored our only goal on a Mamadou Doudou Diouf penalty kick, but frankly it could have been a lot more of a blowout. We had almost 20 shots, and about a dozen chances that could easily have led to goals. But we only scored one. But a win is a win. We are ranked #1 in one poll now and #4 in the other. With #2 UCLA losing to St. Francis, we could be ranked #3 next week in that poll. Next up for men's soccer is Dartmouth next Friday. There are a women's soccer game and a field hockey game tomorrow at 1:00 PM. I may go to one, and I probably will. But there's other events going on then that aren't sports that I may attend instead. I don't know yet. I'll update tomorrow.

Regardless, I will be at the men's soccer vs. Dartmouth Friday night. But I can't attend football vs. UMass Thursday night, which is disappointing. I get out of class at 6:15, but that doesn't leave me time to catch the bus, the last one leaves at 6:00. That's all for now.

Game 3-4-103: Men's Soccer Exhibition vs. Stony Brook

What: Men's soccer exhibition vs. Stony Brook

Stony Brook (red) and
UConn (blue) before a
corner kick

When: Saturday, August 18, 2012, 7:00 PM

Where: Morrone Stadium

Result: Tie 0-0

Exhibitions are usually nothing special. But this game was unique. First of all, we were wearing our blue road uniforms while Stony Book was wearing their red uniforms. We did that last year against the Seawolves too. And we wore our blue uniforms vs. UMass in the first exhibition. Not sure if it means anything for the regular season.

Andre in his plain
white T-shirt.

As for the game itself, there was no scoring. 0-0 draw, although we had A LOT of chances. We need to beat teams like Stony Brook, but it was an exhibition, so I guess it's ok.

The interesting part was when Andre Blake got a controversial yellow card that he probably didn't deserve. Speaking of Blake, he was wearing a plain white t-shirt to signify he was the goalkeeper. No number or team name. We in the Goal Patrol were discussing why he was wearing that. Did he lose his goalie shirts and simply grab the first thing in his drawer? I don't know.

There were only a few students in the Goal Patrol but we were joined by a few little kids late in the game. They joined us in calling the goalie names like "weenie with hot sauce". Actually, only they did that. But it's a kind of cool name. We should remember it for the future. The first regular season game is this Saturday vs. St. Francis. I will finally attend my first regular season game in ANY sport today at 1:00 PM as the women's soccer team takes on Vermont. I attended the UCLA women's soccer game, but it didn't count.