Men's soccer edged by William & Mary

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

SMU M-Soccer No. 5 SMU Drops 3-2 Decision To No. 13 William & Mary
Freshmen Emmet Kumeh and Aaron Simmons score for Mustangs

Aug. 27, 2011

DALLAS (SMU) - The No. 5 SMU men's soccer team was defeated 3-2 by No. 13 William & Mary Saturday night at Westcott Field. Freshmen Emmet Kumeh and Aaron Simmons each netted their first career goals.

Kumeh got the Mustangs on the board with an unassisted goal in the 12th minute. After receiving the ball in the midfield, Kumeh launched a shot from 35 yards out in to the left upper 90 for a 1-0 Mustang lead.

William & Mary responded with a goal in the 37th minute by Nicolas Abrigo who headed in a cross from John Ciampa to knot the score at one. The Tribe took the lead just 59 seconds into the second period when Ben Anderson fired the ball from 25 yards out, placing it just under the crossbar. In the 60th minute, Abrigo netted his second goal of the season when his shot from 20 yards out deflected off of an SMU defender and in.

Simmons tallied his first goal as a Mustang in the 78th minute. Senior Arthur Ivo sent a ball into the box on a corner kick and Simmons headed it home.

Freshman Devin Cook earned his first start for the Mustangs in goal.

SMU heads to North Carolina over Labor Day weekend for the Duke Tournament. The Mustangs face NC State Sept. 2 at 4 p.m. before taking on No. 23 Duke Sept. 4 at 1:30.

Season tickets are on sale now for $24. Individual game tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. Blocks of 50 or more tickets are $1 apiece. Tickets can be purchased online at SMUMustangs.com or by calling 214-SMU-GAME (214-768-4263).

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Certainly a disappointing result for SMU, but overall we did play pretty well. Of course, it's never good to be down 3-1 at home after being up 1-0.

Giving up a late first half goal and then turning around and giving up an early second half goal will certainly be a good learning experience for the young Mustangs team. Their third goal was just unfortunate luck.

The other interesting thing about last night was Ivo not starting. He still looked really good when he was in the game, but maybe he is not quite 100% fit?

Still an exciting game and SMU was showing tons of heart right up to the final minute trying to get that equaliser which was great to see. SMU will certainly win their share this season.

[MiracleOnMockingbird]

I'm reminded of a quote by the great Joe Gibbs:

"You can't go undefeated if you lose your first game."

[giacfsp]

Kumeh's shot was as nice a goal as I have seen in years. He absolutely crushed it.

Too bad he got hurt, as he seems to be a tactically sound defender, too, and we looked a little disorganized after he went out.

I was disappointed with the passing -- at times, the defenders and midfielders seemed like they hadn't met before. The passing was very un-SMU-like. In all honesty, as often as we turned the ball over, we could have lost by a wider margin.

That freshman goalkeeper (Cook) looks like he might be a very good player.

While disappointed with the result, I saw no reason to be concerned. We clearly were the more talented team, and when we maintained possession and pressed forward (when Simmons scored), we had them scrambling.

We were the better team and had a bad night. Replay that game 10 times and we win 7 or 8 of them.

[DallasDiehard]

I agree. Losing sucks, but we were the more talented team, and as soon as a few wrinkles are ironed out, we'll be good.

I thought Simmons and Kumeh looked REALLY good.