Men's Soccer VMIKeydets.com

Men?s Soccer Battles to a 1-1 Draw with Richmond

LEXINGTON, Va. ? The VMI men's soccer team (4-3-1) traveled across the state on Tuesday to square off with the Richmond Spiders under the lights at First Market Stadium in Richmond, Va. After falling behind 1-0 early in the first half of play, the Keydets shut out the Spiders and evened the score halfway through the second half thanks to a brilliant goal off the foot of Mike Lloyd to earn the 1-1 tie.

“It was an exciting game all-around,” said VMI head coach Stephen Ross. “We picked things up in the second half, and really picked up our intensity and played well. Of course we are a little disappointed to not get the win, but we performed well against a good team on the road, and it's a good way to head into conference play.”

The Spiders (3-3-2), a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, got on the scoreboard just 15-minutes into the contest as their senior striker Colin Vint fired a blast from the top of the box past VMI goalkeeper Thomas Upton, his second of the season. The goal completed a well-executed give-and-go from teammate Kyle Richards.

Richmond held the lead over VMI for the rest of the first half, and for the first twenty-minutes of the second half, when junior forward Michael Lloyd got things going for the Keydets. Lloyd took a nice feed from Addison Palanza and dribbled past a couple of Spider defenders before placing a high shot perfectly over the keeper's outstretched hands. Lloyd's third goal of the season tied the game at 1-1.

“That was a great shot by (Michael) Lloyd at a time when we needed a big play,” said Ross. “He stepped up today and played a solid game for us.”

The game would remain tied as the final seconds ticked off the clock, and the game was headed for overtime.

Both teams had key opportunities to take advantage in overtime, but the two ten-minute overtime periods were not enough to decide this contest. The Spiders managed to outshoot the Keydets 7-3 in the two overtime periods, but a solid defensive effort by the Keydet backfield was solidified in overtime.

“Our defense really stepped it up today.” said Ross. “Jeremy Clement played as well as he's ever played, and he kept us in the game with some good defensive plays.”

“Austin Keller also did a great job of marking up with their top scoring threat,” added Ross, talking about Keller's responsibility of shadowing Vint. “(Kevin) Aldrich, (Josh) Van Cleef, (Tommy) Upton all played well for us today.”

Game Notes: This was the 12th meeting between Richmond and VMI. Richmond now leads the all-time series 8-3-1...The first meeting was in 1975...VMI is now unbeaten in night games (1-0-1)...With his goal tonight, Michael Lloyd is now tied for the team lead with three.

Print Friendly Version