Box Score CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT withstood a late rally by the Roger Williams University Men's Soccer team to top the Hawks, 2-1, in non-conference action on Wednesday evening at Roberts Field at Steinbrenner Stadium.
Kareem Itani (Dallas, Texas) got the scoring going just 16:17 into the contest – the earliest the Engineers have scored all year when he headed the ball off a deflection from the Roger Williams back line and drove it into the left corner of the net. Classmate Matthew De La Ossa (New York, N.Y.) opened the chance as he was awarded a throw in from about the 15 yard line, which put Tech in a great scoring position.
The game would remain that way until the 70th minute when sophomore Wesley Woo (Palo Alto, Calif.) was taken down in the box and was given a penalty kick. Itani took the free chance and buried it past Roger Williams keeper
Edmund Geschickter.
Over the second half, Roger Williams had most of the scoring chances as they were looking to spark a second half comeback. At the 65:08 mark, junior
Sean Janson earned a free kick at the top of the box, but his kick missed high and just a minute later, freshman
Colby Decker sent a bicycle kick that went just right of the net.
Roger Williams was able to convert when Janson was given a free kick from the 25 yard line. His opportunity went past the outstretched hands of MIT freshman keeper Cole Hoffer (Tucson, Ariz.), to cut the score to 2-1. With just two ticks left on the clock, Roger Williams earned a corner kick, but the ball sailed wide of the box leaving MIT on top, 2-1, earning its first home win of the 2016 season.
Hoffer collected his second shutout of the season and improved to 3-1 this year as he made a pair of saves between the pipes for MIT, while Geschickter (1-3-1) stopped five shots in a complete game effort for the Hawks.
MIT outshot Roger Williams 18-7 and held a slim 6-4 advantage in corner kicks.
Itani paced MIT with five shots (two on goal), while junior Ryan Stuntz (Wellesley, Mass.) tallied four shots of his own (two on goal) and Woo, sophomore Binh Le (Portage, Mich.) and junior Vickram Goel (Williamsville, N.Y.) all added two shots to the Engineers' total.
The Engineers improve to 3-3-0 in the all-time series against Roger Williams, which dates back to 2011.
MIT opens New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Saturday, September 17th in a 6:00 p.m. match at home against Emerson College, while Roger Williams heads home to play Wentworth in a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) contest on Friday, September 16th with kick off slated for 6:00 p.m.
- Release courtesy of the MIT Sports Information Department
