Nina ScimenesThe continuous battle to make the playoffs haunts the men’s soccer team again this Halloween season. A recent painful double-over-time loss to Widener University crushed the team’s morale. This was an all-too-common game for the Cavaliers.
The game in itself was an absolute war. Both teams played with extreme intensity. The excitement was at its peak towards the end of the second half. The battle was tied at two goals a piece, with Cabrini’s goals scored by seniors Nick Fenton and Jay Catagnus.
With 20 seconds left in regulation, starting goalie Andrew Brady received a red card and was ejected from the game. Brady’s ejection resulted in a penalty shot. A drastic decision was made to put senior goal scorer, Jay Catagnus in as goalie.
“I was a little nervous because I haven’t played goalie since I was a sophomore in high school,” Catagnus said. Both team benches roared with support for their teammates in anticipation of the penalty shot.
Diving to his right, Catagnus made a phenomenal save to send the game into overtime. However, this save would not be enough for Cabrini to pull out with a win.
Widener would score in double overtime and put an end to Cabrini’s fight.
These are the type of losses that Cabrini has had to deal with all season. This is the fifth game that Cabrini has had to settle in overtime. Two games ended in losses and three in ties.
The team’s 3-5-3 record may not seem too promising. The fat lady has not sung yet, however. There is still a chance that this team will make the PAC playoffs. Nick Fenton, a senior forward on the team, has expectations of still entering playoff competition.
“We need to win the rest of our PAC games,” Fenton said. The three remaining teams Cabrini plays are Neumann, Eastern and Arcadia.
“We’re a team of adversity. We’ve had a lot of injuries and problems with suspensions, but we will definitely push through them,” Fenton said. Head coach Doug Meder and senior captain Sean Dugan both addressed the team’s problems.
“We haven’t played one game with a full roster,” Dugan said. Meder quickly followed, “We’ve been unlucky and hopefully we can start to gel together.” The team mentioned that controversy and injury are the signs of a young team.
“When the season started, we didn’t know what to expect because of all the freshman players,” Dugan said. The team has 14 freshman players on the roster. It is uncertain where their season will end. The team assured Cabrini fans that one thing is certain; they will not give up.
Posted to the web by Nina Scimenes
