Early Promise Falls Flat in 3-0 Argo Loss to #10 Rocky Mountain
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Another chapter in a heated rivalry has been written but Argo soccer would rather rip those pages out, as the University of Providence lost at home to (10) Rocky Mountain College 3-0. The game was a bit of revenge for the Battlin’ Bears after the Argos beat Rocky 4-0 both in the regular season and in the Cascade Collegiate Conference semifinals.
The first 15 minutes of play were fairly even. Rocky was the aggressor out of the gate with 2 shots and 2 corner kicks in the first seven minutes, but the Argos went on a similar run in the following seven minutes.
UP’s first shot on goal was both an accident and perhaps the team’s best scoring chance of the game. In the 8th minute, an RMC foul set up a free kick for Argo junior Adrian Gomez from about 40 yards out and 20 yards off the left sideline.
From that distance, UP’s standard practice would be to play a ball into the penalty box with the hopes of an Argo getting a head on it. Gomez attempted to do just that, but a strong prevailing wind caught the ball and pushed further on and left of where the midfielder was most likely aiming.
The ball was on a trajectory to fall just underneath the crossbar with Rocky’s keeper readjusted to the ball’s wind-aided course and punched it over the top of the goal at the last second.
UP got two corner kicks in the following few minutes and senior forward Christoffer Bisbo put another shot on goal in the 14th minute, but nothing had the fans rising in anticipation with the same fervor.
The next 15 minutes were filled mostly with Argo fouls and Rocky possession. RMC earned its first shot on goal during that span, but the pace of the game seemed to slow to a deceptively calm pace.
That all ended in the 33rd minute. The Battlin’ Bears took a corner kick and after the ball knock around a bit, a weak shot attempt from RMC’s Marco Kummerle found the feet of teammate Luca Wiechers about 10 yards out instead of the net. Wiechers then turned and fired from a distance too close for Argo goalkeeper Marc Girones to have much time to react.
The goal gave Rocky all the momentum and the Argos were on the defensive for the rest of the half. RMC had 2 more shots on goal before a shallow cross hit off of a UP defender and fell to an open spot of the field right around the top left corner of the six-yard box where a Battlin’ Bear was waiting for an easy finish.
Another blow for the Argos in the first was an injury to team captain center back Rasmus Madsen. Not only did the team miss his presence on the field, but his absence required team captain defensive midfielder Alex Williams to move to center back which caused a domino effect of change throughout the team’s usual lineup and substitution.
Without the momentum and the familiarity of the team’s normal lineup, the Argos never looked quite right in the second half. The team did get one more shot off in the final 45 minutes than the first and drew 19 second half fouls, but UP didn’t manage a shot on goal in the period.
A controversial yellow card on Williams inside the UP penalty box in the 68th minute set up a penalty kick for Rocky which Jace Beck put in the back of the net to move the score to 3-0.
In the end, the Argos were outshot 23-7 and RMC had 9 shots on goal to the Argo’s 2. Girones did end up with 6 saves, his highest total since the first two games of the season.
The Argo’s record falls to 5-5 (4-4) on the year. UP was 5-5 to start the season in 2016 as well and the team ended up making the CCC championship game. The next step in reaching that same goal will be a road match against Carroll College on October 15 at 3:30 p.m.