Box Score TEANECK, N.J.— The Yeshiva University men's soccer team, playing in front of a spirited crowd of Yeshiva students, played a thrilling game and defeated the College at Old Westbury 3-2 in an exciting Skyline Conference game at Fairleigh Dickinson University Soccer Field on Sunday evening.
The win by the Maccabees improves Yeshiva's overall record to 5-1-1 and 1-1-1 in the Skyline Conference. Old Westbury falls to 4-2-0 with the loss and 0-1-0 in Skyline Conference play.
More than 100 students from the Wilf and Beren campus made their way to the soccer field, helping the Maccabees utilize a home field advantage.
"It was great to hear the fans chanting," said Yeshiva head coach
Josh Pransky. "The home support tonight was great. The fans really got into it and the chants from the stands really boosted team morale."
In the contest, the visiting Panthers opened with the first attack in the Yeshiva zone, before the Maccabees countered and dominated most of the next forty-four plus minutes of the first half. Yeshiva played very aggressively early on and had the ball in the Old Westbury zone most of the first half.
The excellent spacing and urgent play by the Maccabees got Yeshiva on the scoreboard first when
Daniel Amar sent a through ball on the left hand side of the field to
Aaron Braun who split the Old Westbury defenders and lifted a shot from the left sideline to the back of the right hand side of the net to put Yeshiva ahead 1-0 with 14:17 gone by.
Less than two minutes later the Maccabees went up a pair when
Itamar Ben David blasted a free kick to the upper center portion of the goal to make the score 2-0 Yeshiva at the 15:49 mark.
Though neither team scored the rest of the half, Yeshiva kept Old Westbury at bay, preventing the Panthers of any strong chance at scoring in the first stanza. Yeshiva held a 9-5 advantage on shots in the first half.
"The team was looking good. We have a lot of new players and they are starting to gel together and are getting good chemistry," said Pransky. "Tonight our attack looked like the players were really connecting with each other."
In the second half the Maccabees kept up the pressure, and at 52:22 took a 3-0 lead when
Leon Aboudi took a Braun pass from inside the box and netted the goal.
After the Maccabees were ahead 3-0, Old Westbury did not go away, and the Panthers played better and roared back in the latter portion of the contest to get back in the game. Down three goals, Old Westbury made the score 3-1 after a goal by Angel Velez off a corner kick by Anthony Echevarria at 59:41. Then at 72:15, Dominick Guidice put in a header from point blank range, and suddenly the score was 3-2 with more than seventeen minutes to go.
Both teams played valiantly in the late stages of the game before time expired. Both teams had chances but neither could find the goal.
Both schools ended with 17 shots as Old Westbury held a 12-8 edge in the second half. The Panthers attempted seven corner kicks to one for Yeshiva.
Maor Feinstein made six saves for Yeshiva, while Old Westbury starting goalkeeper Peter Sicardi made two saves through the first 27:06 of the game. Old Westbury reserve goalkeeper Kelvin Rivera made three saves in the final 62:54 for the Panthers.
Yeshiva is back in action on Wednesday for a contest at the College of Mount Saint Vincent at 4:30 p.m.
