Despite being ranked sixth out of seven teams in the Mountain East Conference preseason poll, the Shepherd University men’s soccer team has kicked off their 2014 season by matching their win total from last year with two consecutive victories against Chowan and East Stroudsburg. Almost anything this team does in 2014 will be an improvement over last year, which resulted in a 2-15-1 overall record. In order to be successful, the Rams will need to generate more offense and simply put, score more goals than they did last year. In 2013, the team managed to put only 15 balls in the back of the net out of 221 shot attempts. In addition, Shepherd will need to find more consistent play from their goalie as net minders for the Rams allowed 50 goals over the course of the 2013 season.
In their season opener on September 4th, senior midfielder Kyle Ransom scored a goal and assisted on another to help Shepherd defeat the Chowan University Hawks by the score of 4-2. Freshman midfielder Myles Newhouse scored the Rams first goal, which was followed by Ransom’s goal to give the Rams a 2-0 lead into the intermission. After the break, Shepherd continued to pressure the Hawks’ defense, however, they had some trouble getting shots on net. Chowan would finish the game with a 22-14 advantage in shots on goal. Nonetheless, senior forward Ricky Johnson and freshman forward Jeff Kammerer made their presence felt by scoring goals to cushion the Shepherd lead. Johnson’s goal came unassisted while Kammerer scored off a cross from senior defender Michael Cella. Christian Funes tallied a pair of goals for Chowan however it was too little, too late for the Hawks. Junior goalkeeper Alex Aleshire had 12 saves for the Rams in the match.
On September 6th, the Rams hosted their first home game of the season against East Stroudsburg. The Warriors tallied the first goal of the match and took a 1-0 lead over the Rams at the 24:37 mark when Otavio Caproni scored on a penalty kick. However, Jeff Kammerer was once again impressive and scored on a feed from Kyle Ransom to tie the game in the 56th minute. Just seconds later, at the 56:50 mark, Ransom scored on an assist from senior midfielder Abel Setegn to give the Rams a 2-1 lead. It would turn out to be the decisive goal as Shepherd did not fall apart after falling behind early, as they may have last year, and in the end defeated East Stroudsburg by the same score. Shepherd had a 15-11 advantage in shots while the teams were even with 4 corner kicks apiece.
The Rams next match will be on the road against Washington Adventist University.
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