VTC Men’s Soccer Downed in Season Opener
Penalty kick in Overtime seals victory for Johnson State
Vermont Tech Men's Soccer opened the 2011 season at Johnson State with a valiant performance on the road against a highly regarded opponent. At 7:29 of the first half, Freshman Daniel Mujica (Caracas, Venezuela) and VTC opened the scoring with a beautiful curling free kick to the near post. This opening score shocked JSC and energized VTC for the remainder of the half. VTC dominated most of the remainder of the first half, and the score at halftime was tied at one.
Five minutes before half, Ryan Demars of JSC was able to get one across the line for the Badgers to even the score at half. 11:56 into the second half VTC was able to score a goal by Sophomore Hannes Fisher-Byrne (Strafford, VT) was able to hold off his defender and slide the ball into the net to put VTC ahead again. JSC managed to dominate much of the play in the time remaining. VTC was holding on for dear life to get the win, but ultimately couldn't withstand the constant pressure from the JSC attack. With three minutes remaining on the clock, Ryan Demars was again able to score for JSC.
Going into sudden-death overtime VTC was visibly exhausted and struggled to retain any kind of possession during beginning of the first 10 minute period. A loose ball bounced through the VTC defense causing Junior Zach Fortuna (Ludlow, VT) the VTC goalie, to come off his line to make the save. While making that save the referee determined that Fortuna fouled the JSC forward and called a penalty and Red Carded Fortuna. Senior captain Ryan Joy (North Montpelier, VT) scored the ensuing penalty for JSC, and the Badgers won the game. VTC was devastated with the result, but encouraged by their quality of play and energy within the team. Coach Hutchins was quoted after the game "We were very good for large portions of the game today. Johnson is a very good team with good experience and good coaching, so I'm very pleased with our group for working so hard and showing their quality in such a tough match."
The 3-2 loss sends the Green Knights to 0-1, 0-0 in the Yankee Conference, while Johnson State moves t0 2-0, 0-0 in the North Atlantic Conference.
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