KEENE, N.H. – The Keene State men's soccer team hosted Worcester State Tuesday night at Dr. Ron Butcher field for their last regular season game of their 2023 campaign. Owls' freshman, Cristian Correa would lead the Owls on the attack, netting both of the Owls' goals in the match, as Keene State would hold on to their early lead and defeat Worcester State, 2-1.

Records

• Keene State: 9-5-2, 5-1-2 LEC
• Worcester State: 4-7-4, 2-4 MASCAC

Postgame Interview (Coach Schmidt)
Postgame Interview (Cristian Correa)

How it Happened

Keene State would jump out to an early lead in the contest, as Declan Coughlin would steal the ball from Manny Ramirez of Worcester State at midfield, dribble into the Lancer's half of the field, and send a perfectly timed pass out ahead of Correa; Correa would not even take a touch, as soon as he saw the Lancer's goalie, Andy Ramirez charging off his line, he chipped the shot over his head and into the back of the net. Correa's shot would give the Owls a 1-0 lead, just 4:34 into the match, the second quickest goal the Owls have scored in a match this season. Five minutes later, Coughlin would add another assist as he would send a pass through a defender's legs and right to Correa, who would kick it off the back of his right heel and past a diving Ramirez, putting the Owls up 2-0, 9:36 into the contest. The Lancers would get a pair of their own shots off shortly after, but the first would go wide and the second, coming from Waseem Mahmoud, would be saved by Regan Racicot, to preserve the Owls' two goal lead. As the half went on, both teams would get shots off, although Ramirez would only need to make one save, compared to Racicot not needing to make any. In the 34th minute, the Lancers would pull within a goal as Taylor Gavaletz would dribble through the Owls' defense and take a shot far from the goal that would deflect off the outstretched hands of Racicot and barely slip inside the net, for Worcester State's first goal. The Lancers would look to knot the game up at two just a few minutes later, but Racicot would save Brady Iovanni's shot attempt. Neither team would get a shot off the rest of the first half, as the Owls held onto their 2-1 lead heading into halftime.
 
In the final 45 minutes of play, the Lancers would narrowly outshoot the Owls, 8-7, as they looked to tie the game up at two. Keene State would get three shots off in the first 15 minutes of the second half, as they looked to extend their lead, but only one of them would be on goal, that Ramirez would make a save on. Ramirez would make another pair of saves, coming in the 74th and 77th minute, as he did all he could to keep his team in the game and stop the shots coming from Esteban Henao and Cedrick Ishoboravyose. At halftime, Eldin Husanovic would enter the game in net for the Owls, but all three shots from the Lancers would be blocked or go wide of the net, until with under 12 minutes in the match, he would make two saves in as many minutes, preserving the Owls' one goal lead. Ramirez and Husanovic would each make one more save the rest of the way, and the Owls' defense would block a pair of shots down the stretch, as the Owls would hold on to their 2-1 lead in the end. 
 
Ramirez would up making five saves, after allowing a goal on each of the two shots he faced. Racicot made two saves while allowing one goal, while Husanovic would save all three shots that he faced in the match. 
 
In his postgame interview, the head coach of the Keene State men's soccer team, Matt Schmidt, was asked about how he felt in getting the 2-1 win in their last game before the LEC tournament, "Well, better.  Better than the other day for sure, but for the right reasons.  I think we probably lost that game the other day for some reasons…some things the boys need to step up and learn.  They talked about it.  Hard work, toughness mentally and physically, and I thought it was a great response from them tonight.  I mean, those things – and this team tested us with those things, this is a physical team, a quick team, so…but that's the thing I'm most pleased about is the things that were a struggle for us that cost us the other day they came out, they responded, and turned those around and that's what you want to see."
 
When Schmidt was asked about the team's mental standpoint at this point in the year after bouncing back from the loss to Rhode Island College, he talked about how they responded strong and brought great energy into the game, "The first thing I'll look at is the play in the middle…just a simple thing from play on the first goal…we give the ball away, Declan presses right away, and that's something we actually focused on not all season but the last couple of practices…play the next play.  Win it right back.  He does that, bang, and that leads to that situation, so I mean that's just it.  Across the field, to continue to do that.  But then I'll look to the leadership.  Training yesterday, coming off of a tough day….I mean really low, and the energy at training – and it was actually the whole team, all 33 guys…you know, some of those guys who don't get a lot of minutes all year, for them to come out and put the energy into the session top to bottom and the leadership helping pull that out of them…that's to me what led to today was the environment they created yesterday showed up here and they had those little habits across the board." Schmidt also gave credit to Giacomo Sinopoli today, "I'll also point to [Giacomo].  You know, he gets himself sometimes in different situations where he gets frustrated and how he reacts...for the most part, today was one of his better days, not as many silly fouls, not as much getting distracted, and just staying focused on playing good hard play and, when he does that, he creates a lot of good situations for us."
 
After scoring two goals on the day, Correa was asked how he felt scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of play, "I just wanted to come out today and we needed to win and it was great to get those goals early on and set the tone, but I'm just excited to get those goals." Correa gave credit to Coughlin when asked about his great first goal, "My first thought was to chip it. It was just a perfect ball from Declan, and I saw the Keeper coming out and chipped it over. It felt good, and it went in, and it was a good goal."
 
Inside the Box

• With the win, the Owls improve to 14-2 in the all-time series against the Lancers, avenging their 1-0 loss in Worcester last year.
• Correa's two goals were his second and third career goals. His three goals in the season tie him with Rahul Drukpa for second on the team. Correa is also now second on the team with two of his goals being game-winning goals.
• Declan Coughlin's two assists boosted him into first in the LEC with eight assists in the 2023 season so far. If Coughlin maintains first place, he would be the first Keene State player since Emmanuel Smith in 2019 to lead the LEC in assists for men's soccer.
• Both teams finished with 14 shots, although KSC had seven on goal, compared to six from WSU.
• Keene State had nine corners, including four within a minute span in the second half, compared to two from Worcester State, who would have both theirs in the first half.

Up Next
 

Keene State's next game will come in the Little East Conference Championship, as they could finish anywhere from the No. 1 Seed to the No. 3 Seed. Their outcome will be determined this weekend as the rest of the LEC teams wrap up their conference games.
Worcester State will play their final regular season game in their next contest, as they will travel to take on Massachusetts Maritime on Friday, October 27, 7:00 PM.