PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Elias Choclin (Suffern, N.Y.) scored his first goal of the season, and second of his career, but the comeback attempt by the Roger Williams University Men's Soccer team came up short, falling 2-1 to Johnson & Wales University on Monday night at the Scotts Miracle-Gro Athletics Complex. The Hawks concluded their slate of out-of-conference games with the loss while seeing their season-best four-game winning streak come to an end.
 
With the defeat, RWU drops to 8-6-2 on the campaign. On the other side, the Wildcats improve to 11-3-0.
 
John Padavano (Flemington, N.J.) made one save but also surrendered a pair of goals and as a result he fell to 4-4-0 on the season. Declan Caster (Charlestown, R.I.) made his second start of the year for JWU and made three saves and allowed one goal to improve to 2-0-0 on the campaign.
 
Hawk Highlights
Elias Choclin: 1 goal, 1 shot, 1 shot on goal
Andre Caceres: 1 assist
Javi Beltran: 1 shot, 1 shot on goal
 
John Padavano: 1 save, 2 goals allowed, 90:00 minutes in goal
 
For The Opponents
Nick Gutekunst: 1 goal, 1 shot, 1 shot on goal
Ricky Africo: 1 assist, 2 shots
J.P. Rioux: 3 shots, 1 shot on goal
 
Declan Caster: 3 saves, 1 goal allowed, 90:00 minutes in goal
 
How It Happened
The first half was a defensive struggle with each side and incidentally enough, it was the defense that scored the first goal. With just 16 seconds remaining in the half, Nick Gutekunst (East Northport, N.Y.) flew down the right side and attempted to send a crossing pass through the crease. An RWU defender was there and tried to make a play but accidentally knocked the ball into the back of the net for what was officially ruled as an own goal.
 
Neither side had many scoring opportunities in the half as each team took three shots each and received one corner kick per side. The Wildcats managed two shots on goal against one for the Hawks.
 
Roger Williams ended up on the wrong end of another bad bounce in the 70^th minute. Austin Sweeney (Nutley, N.J.) sent a shot into the box that John Padavano (Flemington, N.J.) got his fingertips on. The ball remained alive however and after the ball was kept in the air, Ricky Africo (North Providence, R.I.) was able to send a header to Gutekunst on the vacant side of the net and he was able to redirect it into the net to double the JWU advantage with his fourth goal of the season.
 
The Hawks looked to try and mount a comeback, and they got halfway there in the 88^th minute. Andre Caceres (Ossining, N.Y.) controlled the ball on the left side of the pitch and then sent a perfect through pass to a slicing Elias Choclin (Suffern, N.Y.) who split between two defenders to get a one-on-one against the GK Declan Caster (Charlestown, R.I.). He beat Caster to the bottom right of the net to make the score 2-1 but could not get any closer.
 
Overall, the Wildcats held the edge in shots, 9-6, and corner kicks, 3-2. Meanwhile, RWU took more shots on goal with four against three for JWU.
 
What's Next
The Hawks (8-6-2) will play their final road game of the regular season when they visit Gordon College (7-4-2) on Wednesday at 7:00 PM.
 
Johnson & Wales (11-3-0) will head up to Dean College (3-10-0) to play the Bulldogs on Wednesday at 3:00 PM.