On Friday, September 1, Cabrini’s men’s soccer team hosted Haverford College at Edith Robb Dixon Field for their season’s home opener. The Cavaliers fought hard and matched up well against one of the best teams in the nation, ranking in at number 18 in the NCAA’s Division III Soccer, but ended up falling short towards the end of the game by a score of lost 3-0.
The Cabrini Cavaliers held their own in the first half of the game. In its entirety, the Cavs had eight shots, four of which were on goal. Freshman forward John Griffin, junior midfielder Jared Irwin and senior defensemen Xavier Young led the team in both total shots and shots on goal.
“We started out strong, but towards the end of the game, our bodies just started to become tired,” Young said.
Young’s teammate, sophomore midfielder Danny Acevedo, agreed with Young and said, “After Haverford scored their first goal, we ended up giving up on ourselves and each other.”
As for the Black Squirrels, Haverford College started out sluggish in the first half but came to play in the second half, scoring their first goal from a penalty kick in the 61st minute of the game.
Not only did Haverford’s sophomore forward Nick Jannelli score the first goal of the game, but he also scored the second goal of the game in the 63rd minute, which was assisted by teammate Nicholas Montgomery.
Haverford’s final goal was scored by senior forward Peter Baroff in the 83rd minute of the game. Although the Black Squirrels ended up scoring three goals, Cabrini’s sophomore goalkeeper Mike Gould did end up collecting nine saves by the end of the game.
Rob Dallas, Cabrini’s head coach, who is entering his sixth season coaching the Cavaliers, explained how he felt to be back on Edith Robb Dixon Field coaching the Cavs. “It was great to get back moving with those guys again,” Dallas said. “We have a really young group this year and a lot of new faces. We graduated a lot of talent from last year’s class.”
Dallas was not disappointed with the way his team played at all in their first game of the season. He said, “I thought we matched up with them very well for the first half; it was exciting. We’re close to where we need to be and to go forward. If we can put a whole game together, I think we’ll be sitting pretty.”
Next up, the Cabrini Cavaliers are traveling to Chester, Pennsylvania, where they will be facing Widener University on Sunday, September 3 in their second game of the season.
