The College of Staten Island men's soccer team played a grueling 100 minutes in its home and season opener earlier this afternoon into the evening, salvaging a 0-0 split with visiting NYU-Polytechnic in a non-conference test played at the CSI Soccer Complex. The game was halted as an official contest after the first 10-minute overtime period due to darkness. The tie sends both teams to a season-opening 0-0-1 record. It was CSI's first contest under new head coach, Jose-Luis Rebay.
The game was highlighted by a very well-played but physical first half, one that saw both teams make quality runs at the other's goal. CSI saw a series of would-be shots bounce just wide of goal, including a strike by freshman Alfonso Castaneda that was nearly plugged into the low left corner at the 30-minute mark. Both teams registered five shots in the opening stanza, but neither Poly keeper Rishi Sarkar nor CSI netminder Ahmed El-Ghareib seem heavily tested.
The game took a rather ugly turn in the second half, marred by a total of 12 card bookings, three ejections, countless substitutions, and a series of stoppages due to injury. Already having lost back-liners Giovanni Cortese, and Alfred Yeboah in the first half, CSI suffered injuries in the second frame to Mubaric Ibrahim, Paully Awad, Lirim Begai and Dogan Altunsoy. Begai and Altunsoy both returned, as did Yeboah, but the Dolphins seemed out of sync, and Poly turned on the offensive sensing CSI weakness in the back.
The result was an 8-1 advantage in shots in the final 55 minutes of the contest, but the Fighting Blue Jays couldn't register a single one on goal, especially in the closing minutes, when both Giovanni Ormaeche and Andres Torres missed golden chances from right in front of the goal mouth, shooting left of goal. The physical play also escalated. NYU-Poly's Allen Rohr was sent off with a pair of yellow cards, after engaging with Castaneda, who was given a straight red for fighting. Both benches were also issued yellow cards for dissent and delay of game penalties, and with time winding down, NYU-Poly's Adam Lakawicz was hit with consecutive yellows for dissent as well.
The stoppages in play delayed the game by a fair amount in the second half, so much so that when the game headed into overtime, the bright day had given way to dusk, and after just one overtime session, the game was suspended due to darkness.
NYU-Poly out-shot CSI, 18-6 (4-3 on goal), and earned a 12-1 advantage on corner kicks. Neither team registered a shot in the overtime frame. El-Ghareib finished with four saves for the shutout tie, while Sarkar and Brendan Finn combined for a three-save shutout on the other end. Torres led all scorers with four shots, while Castaneda and Begai each tallied two for the Dolphins.
CSI will be back in action a week from today, taking on SUNY-Maritime at 4:30pm at the CSI Soccer Complex.
