Loss drops UAlbany from first place; Catamounts move up

The UAlbany men's soccer team was riding a four-game winning streak going into its match against Vermont last Wednesday afternoon, but lost 3-0 at Varsity Field. The Great Danes fell to 5-5-2 on the season with the loss, while the Catamounts improved to 6-4-3.

UAlbany coach Johan Aarnio was less than pleased with the team's effort.

"Today," Aarnio said, "I don't think we showed up."

The Danes did manage a stalemate out of the first half, but broke down toward the end of the second half, when the Catamounts scored three unanswered goals in a span of 12 minutes.

Vermont midfielder Panos Georgiadis ripped two goals, the second coming on a penalty kick after being taken down inside the defense box.

Three and a half minutes later, Vermont's Lee Stephane Kouadio put the game away for good with a goal of his own.

As UAlbany keeper Steward Ceus came out of the goal to try to make a play on the ball, Kouadio put a move on him and was able to dribble unmolested all the way to the net for the easy put-in.

"That group over there is a very physical side, a run-and-gun type side," Aarnio said. "They're very deep in their roster, they use it very well, and I think it took a toll on us."

"And we made a couple of bad mistakes there that gave away two goals," Aarnio added.

"One out of a penalty and one out of a mistake by the keeper. It's not as far apart as the score represents, but we certainly need to do better than that. Better than what we did today."

In the end, mistakes killed the Danes. Vermont was a much quicker team, but also played a near flawless game defensively.

The loss not only snapped UAlbany's win streak, it was the first conference loss of the season, and it dropped the Danes out of sole possession of first place in America East.

The new leaders atop the standings: the Vermont Catamounts.

UAlbany lost its second straight Saturday, falling 1-0 to New Hampshire.

Five of the Danes' last six regular season games will come away from the Varsity Field before the conference tourney starts at the end of the month.