Penalty Kick Dooms Short-Handed Rams

MOBILE, Ala— It’s hard enough to beat a soccer team coming off a National Tournament appearance with 11 players on the field, let alone only 10, but that’s what the University of Mobile men’s soccer team faced in their season opener Friday night.

The Rams were in Hattiesburg, MS playing Southern Nazarene University and ended up having to play the majority of the contest short-handed after Matt Watts picked up his second yellow card only 14:00 minutes into the first half of play.

Mobile was able to adjust and hold the Crimson Storm to only 2 shots through the next 29:45 of play, but bad luck struck again, when a hand ball in the box gave Southern Nazarene a penalty kick with only 1:15 remaining.

Alvin Gherghescu took the shot for the Crimson Storm and knocked it inside the right post for the game’s decisive goal.

The Rams had 1 golden opportunity to score in each half, but fate and solid play by the opposition kept the ball out of the net and the Rams off the scoreboard. In the first half, Onesimus Ikungo took a feed in close and rocketed a shot toward the back of the net, but the Crimson Storm’s David Eguren was up to the challenge and made the lunging save.

In the second half, a brilliant feed off a free kick from Mohammed Habibzi found Thomas Warf’s head in the box, but Warf’s header sailed inches wide to preserve Southern Nazarene’s victory.

Southern Nazarene out-shot the Rams 11 to 8, including a 7 to 2 edge in shots on goal. Freshman Jason Williams came up big in his debut in the net for Mobile, coming through with 6 saves in the contest.