Men’s Soccer takes a huge Non-Conference Win over Alvernia
Written by cupor1 on September 23, 2023
By Justin Randell
The MSU Red Hawks men’s soccer team coming in with a 5-0-1 record in the early season, faced off against the 2-3 Alvernia University Golden Wolves at MSU Soccer Park on Wednesday September 20, 2023.
An amazing turnout was in attendance for what was a physical, tough, and hard fought battle from two talented squads. Montclair State came into the match prepared to face the top goal scorer on Alvernia, Justin Fetrow. Alvernia did not have a walk in the park advantage either, as they had to face Montclair’s top performer, Amer Lukovic who is amongst the top goal scorers in Division 3 Men’s Soccer.
Right from kickoff, both sides made their presence felt, playing aggressive and making strong tackles to gain the possession advantage early. It only took 6 minutes and 45 seconds into the first half for the referee to show a yellow card as Montclair’s Anthony Viola made a hard slide tackle that caught an Alvernia player. Two more yellow cards would follow from Alvernia’s Austin Chambers and MSU’s Osbin Mendez.
Montclair State showed why they are ranked 5th in the nation for Division 3 soccer, jumping out to an early 1-0 lead in the 31st minute as none other than Amer Lukovic put one in the back of the net by dribbling around 3 Alvernia defenders and placing it in the bottom right corner.
As far as the rest of the half went, MSU maintained most of the possession in the Alvernia’s half, making it tough for them to get anything going. The shots in the first half were 15-3 in favor of the Red Hawks.
In the second half, Alvernia needed to make some kind of adjustment to get back into the match. And that is exactly what they did. Alvernia was awarded a penalty kick early on. Ryan Cogill leveled the scoring at 1 in the 55th minute, giving him his 4th goal of the season.
But Montclair State quickly responded in the 60th minute as Amer Lukovic added another tally with his 2nd goal of the game and 11th of the year to regain the lead for Montclair 2-1. MSU faced some late adversity when Osbin Mendez was issued a red card. Montclair had to play the rest of the game with 10 men.
Despite being short handed late, the Red Hawks were able to hold on for the 2-1 win on their home field. MSU improves to 6-0-1 on the year as Alvernia falls to 2-4. Overall, Alvernia couldn’t find an answer for the Red Hawks. From top to bottom MSU played composed and limited the scoring chances for Alvernia. The shot total for the match was 25-9 in favor of Montclair. This was another huge win for the Red Hawks as their quest to reach the NCAA Division 3 Tournament remains intact.
Next up for the MSU Men’s Soccer Team, they will head on the road for a conference matchup to take on New Jersey City University on Saturday September 23 at 1:00PM.
