Oakland falls short of Oral Roberts
ROCHESTER — A late goal by Johnny Dreshaj wasn’t enough as the Oakland men’s soccer team fell, 2-1, to Oral Roberts in both team’s Summit League opener on Friday night at the OU Soccer Field. The Golden Grizzlies outshot the Golden Eagles 17-6
“I think conference is a different animal and every game is a battle royal,” said Oakland head coach Eric Pogue, “You have to put away your chances and you have to put them away at home. We didn’t do that and they did, scoring on their only two opportunities.”
For the second match in a row Oakland (1-6-1, 0-1-0) scored in the 90th minute. Josh Bennett started the play with a cross to Miche’le Lipari, who laid the ball off to the open Dreshaj. His shot hit the back of the net with just 45 seconds left in the match.
Trailing 1-0 after the first half, The Golden Grizzlies outshot ORU 12-3 in the second half in search of an equalizer. OU came closest to tying the match in the 59th minute from a corner kick, when Jeff Cheslik hit a header that was cleared off the line by an ORU defender. The shot rebounded to Bennett, but his shot was saved by the goalkeeper.
Oakland continued to put on the pressure and hit seven consecutive shots, within a 12-minute span. However, Oral Roberts came away with a counterattack goal to take a 2-0 lead. Aaron Birk took the ball on a two-on-one breakaway and passed to Thomas Adams who converted the breakaway opportunity. Earlier in the match, Birk converted a similar chance one-on-one with the keeper from a Jarrett Hamilton through-ball.
The Golden Grizzlies created chances for the entire 90 minutes, as Lipari just missed scoring in the opening minute from a lunging shot that hit off the far post. The Golden Grizzlies eared a 5-4 edge in shots on goal and OU keeper Scott Messer made two saves. Nick Petolick made four saves for the Golden Eagles.
Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, Oakland University
