The Seton Hall men’s soccer team continued its dominance following its win over No. 25 Creighton last weekend, coming from behind to win 2-1 over DePaul on Saturday afternoon.
Not even a minute had gone by when Pirates forward Jonathan Jimenez generated the first shot of the game, testing DePaul goalkeeper Quentin Low, but not finding the back of the net. The Hall out-shot the Blue Demons in the first 20 minutes, but DePaul broke its silence and scored on a 21st minute shot by Zach El-Shafei.
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Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption]
El-Shafei, outside the box, put a hopeful shot on goal that changed direction after deflecting off Pirates defender Lukas Pangonis, leaving Pirates goalkeeper Peyton Elder relatively helpless as the ball trickled into the goal.
For the remainder of the first half, both teams had shots on goal, but neither could convert on their efforts.
In the second half, the Pirates still had difficulties finding the back of the net: Jimenez had another shot that just missed out on being the Pirates equalizer, Gabriel Viola had a shot which was blocked and Spencer Burkhardt had a powerful curling effort sail high over the net.
After banging on the door for most of the game, in the 60th minute, the Pirates finally broke down the proverbial door and jumped on the board. Macro Neves, who had just seen the ball spin off the goal-line, passed the ball to Jimenez, who gave it to Andres Arcila, with Arcila running through defenders and teammates and eventually blasting the ball into the net. The goal was Arcila’s seventh of the year, tying him for the conference lead.
Arcila tried to add on to his offensive efforts to give the Pirates the lead in the 78th minute, but his shot went just wide.
The Pirates were able to capitalize and take the lead on a throw-in by Juan Camilo Abella near the left hand corner flag, which led to a header by Gaspar Jean-Baptiste to the far right post. Pangonis, who saw DePaul’s early goal deflect off him, jumped on the opportunity and threw himself at the ball, scoring and giving the Pirates a lead they would not surrender in the 84th minute.
The go-ahead goal by Pangonis marks the senior’s first of his career. The Pirates’ captain had to wait a total of 4,973 minutes before netting it.
The Pirates dominated the statistical categories, leading the Blue Demons commandingly in shots, shots on goal and corner kicks.
Seton Hall’s next match will be on the road against Providence on Saturday, Oct. 14. There the Pirates will look to win three straight conference games for the first time under head coach Gerson Echeverry.
Andrea Keppler can be reached at Andrea.Keppler@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @keppler_andrea.
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