September 27, 2012

Dear Alums & Friends,


The day after a hard fought and disappointing game result is always tough. Everyone does a little soul searching on the bus ride home and some of us are up in the middle of the night thinking and plotting the next move....luckily my wife Sheila is a former college coach and understands it all. Our 4-2 loss to Boston College was not what we were looking for but as we have told the players, the season is a process and in our minds one that should peak in the Atlantic 10 season which begins in a short two weeks.

Coming off the thrilling 4-3 overtime victory against UNH, we recovered and prepared for the always tough Eagles of Boston College of the ACC. BC had some up and down results and we felt as if we stuck to our game plan we could get the result we wanted. A year earlier hear in Kingston we conceded a goal in the first 10 minutes of the game and proceeded to dominate them after that so we were confident going into the game.

The team came out a little slow and flat and with that came the worst case scenario, BC scoring the first 10 minutes of the game. We had short stretches of good play after that wake up, picking up lose balls and trying to get at their back four and threaten which we did but with no results. Unfortunately individual mistakes led to 2 more goals against the run of play and at the half we had dug ourselves a deep hole.

We came out of the interval with guns a blazing, pressing the hosts and were rewarded with sophomore Michael Casey’s (Wakefield, RI) 4th goal of the year.  Senior Matt Ribbens (Tinley Park, IL) cut a ball back on the left flank and delivered a cross that sophomore forward Ross Morison (Linlithgow, Scotland) headed down for the finish. It looked like we were on our way but another errant pass led to a man down goal to put a cushion on the home team lead. We kept pressing and competing and again found joy when super senior Brett Uttley (Jamestown, RI) clipped a ball over the Eagle right back to a streaking Thomas Lindroos (Espoo, Finland) who volleyed an angled ball over the onrushing goalkeeper to cut their lead in half.

We again kept pressing as the game got more physical with time ticking down and we were not able to get any closer when the final whistle blew. It was certainly a tale of two halves as our performance in the second half clearly exceeded that in the first. It was nice to have Mikey Welsh (Dalgety Bay, Scotland), Joey Haught (Brecksville, OH) and Ross Morison making their first appearances back from injury. We are nearly back at full strength as A10’s approach. Keep your fingers crossed that we also have Bryce Naples (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Ryan Oakley (Norwich, England) who have been patiently waiting on the NCAA to rule on their NCAA eligibility status. They have yet to be able to play this season and will be eligible for sure next but we would love to have them now.

As always we had a great fan turnout at the game with our steadfast parents of the Eckmayers, Micheletti’s, Uttley’s, Hess’, Bob Gargaro, Debbie Ribbens, Trevor Peter Moran as well as Dan Brownridge ‘01 who was there for the first half with his wife who is due in March. Pat McGuire ‘92, who firm designed and built the BC soccer complex, was scheduled to be there but was held up with another project scheduling issue.

On to the final game of the non-conference season as we travel to the Fairfield University at 7:00 pm on Saturday September 29th.  Both my father and brother are graduates of Fairfield so I’m sure their will be a little Stagg versus Ram and who has the strongest horns/antlers ribbing going on this week.

Finally, following the FU game we open our Atlantic 10 Conference season when we host the University of Massachusetts on Saturday October 6th at 7:00 pm here at the URI Soccer Complex. That night is also our Annual Grassroot Soccer fundraiser. Donations for entry will be taken at the gate with all proceeds going to this global aids education through soccer organization. Hope to see you all there!

GO RAMS!
Coach O’C