Box Score

TROY, N.Y. – Reed Rampinelli scored off a long-distance free kick with a little over 18 minutes left to bring the Keene State College men's soccer team within one, but the Owls could never find the tying goal, falling to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2-1 at ECAV Stadium in non-conference action Wednesday afternoon.

KSC's (1-3-1) goal snapped a scoring drought of slightly over 200 minutes, but they could not snap a three-game losing streak, all on the road.  RPI (2-2), who entered the game having scored one goal in three contests, evens their record at .500 and posted their fifth consecutive win in the series, with the Owls not having scored more than one goal against the Engineers since 2018 in Keene when they won 2-1.

The Owls did not muster much offense in the opening 45 minutes, recording only two shots, and found themselves trailing 1-0 in the 20th minute when Julio Rodriguez fired in a laser from 18 yards away that flew past KSC keeper Regan Racicot's head to his right.  It was RPI's first goal since 15:06 in against Sarah Lawrence College two games ago when they won 1-0.

The home team doubled their lead less than two minutes into the second half when they played a looping ball from their own end that landed 26 yards away from KSC's net.  However, despite Racicot charging out to play the bounce, RPI got a piece of it to deflect it past the Owls keeper and it found the foot of Kyle Osborne who had an open net to cash in on for a 2-0 lead. 

KSC did find more chances as the game went on after just two shots in the opening 54 minutes, but could not cash in as a corner kick with 15 minutes to go was cleared away, a free kick with 13 minutes left was grabbed by RPI goalie Colin Such, and a dangerous ball off another corner with 12:30 left was headed away by an Engineers defender.  Claudio Pizzicarola had a bid to tie the game with 1:20 left after he headed a shot on target off a KSC throw in, but Such jumped and grabbed it as it did not have enough power to get past.

"It was a tough day.  We gave up an easy goal with a miscommunication in the back," said Keene State head coach Matt Schmidt.  "Then we fought back into the game.  Reed scored on a set piece to bring us back to 2-1, then Alex Nicolas had a breakaway to tie and their defender cleared off the goal line."

"We need to keep working.  These tough games can prepare us for conference play if we take the lessons away and get better and work as a team moving forward."

The Owls return home to host the Rochester Institute of Technology (0-4) on homecoming weekend, Saturday, September 14 at 11:00 a.m.  The Tigers lost three consecutive 1-0 games to open the season before falling 3-0 to No. 22 University of Rochester today.