Knights come together to earn a tough victory
Vermont Tech 2, Maine Presque Isle 1
The Knights show great character in their contest against Maine Presque Isle as the Knights dealt with adversity and relied on younger players to step in and fill the roles of a beaten up defensive back four. The knights had three defensive backs out with injuries, their starting defensive center mid out for a family emergency and their starting striker also missing because of an injured left ankle today as they hosted Maine Presque Isle.
The Knights started their match with great energy and created a number of opportunities early as they took control of the match from the first whistle. After numerous opportunities that kept Maine Presque Isle on the heels the Knight were able to finally able to give them a 1-0 lead after a corner kick from Phillip Hepburn (Milton, VT) was misdirected by Maine Presque Isles Mohamud Abukar and found the back of his own goal just 4 minutes into the contest.
The Knights would continue to create a lot of dangerous opportunities in the remaining minutes of the 1st half but were not able to open the match up. Late in the first half Maine Presque Isle would notch the match up at 1 a piece after lack of communication from the newly organized back four of the Knights hesitated to take control of a few bad touches allowing Mohamud Abukar to get an open shot inside the PK spot with 2 minutes left in the half.
The Knights in the 2nd half would control much of the possession and create many opportunities but could not seem to break through once they got into Maine Presque Isles defensive third. A corner kick in the 85th minute would be the deference in the match as Matt Brien (Colchester, VT) would make his run in front on Maine Presque Isle goalkeeper and defecting the ball enough to cause their goalkeeper to miss handle the ball allowing it to fall into the back of the goal.
The Knights would battle the remaining 5 minutes of the match to uphold their 2-1 lead and finish the game victorious. This was the Knights 2nd win on the weekend improving their record to 5-9 overall and 4-3 in their conference. The knights look to continue their win streak as they travel to face Berkley (NJ) in Brooklyn, NY this Thursday night before the finish up their regular season home against Paul Smith's College on October 15th, 2016.
