By: Dylan Fearon
Will Pustari had been practicing the move all season.
Take the ball off his chest with his back to the goal, turn his body and fire a volley into the bottom right corner.
On Sunday he finally had the chance to pull it off in a game, and he didn’t squander the opportunity.
In the 75th minute of Quinnipiac men’s soccer’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference quarterfinal match at Manhttan, the Bobcats had a free kick close to 35 yards from goal. Midfielder James Doig led Max Rothenbuecher towards the 18-yard box with a short pass. Rothenbuecher crossed the ball into the box, and Pustari did the rest, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead it would not surrender.
“That’s something I’ve been doing all season in training and practice,” Pustari said. “It linked up for once and I got to capitalize on it.”
“I’ve seen him try it a lot of times, I haven’t seen him put it in very often,” Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa said jokingly. “You talk about three seniors right there that have been in those scenarios before. Three smart guys and they recognized some space there in a little bit of a pocket. It just allowed us to get in a better position than the free kick was originally in. Then, just great composure by Will. I thought the whole play was perfectly executed.
Quinnipiac’s experience showed its true colors in the biggest of situations. Doig was on the 2013 team that won the MAAC championship and played in the NCAA Tournament, while most of the Bobcats’ roster was a part of the MAAC regular season title run last year.
“We’ve been in this situation before,” Pustari said. “Manhattan hasn’t. It’s one of those games where the emotions cannot get the best of you and they didn’t really know how to handle it. But with so many experienced players, we ran right through it. Business as usual.”
“Throughout the season it’s huge, but when you get to the quarterfinals, semifinals and hopefully the final, it’s important because maturity shows,” Doig said. “We’ve been here before. We know how to handle it. Experience is massive.”
After an up-and-down start to the season, Quinnipiac has won five of its last six games, including twice against Manhattan in The Bronx, a place the Jaspers were very good at it this year.
“It’s difficult to play anybody on the road,” Da Costa said. “The way the league is set up and college soccer is set up, you don’t always get to see teams home and away. This is not an easy place to play. Coming into the city, in this environment and it’s just really different. I think that helped, that we were here once this year, and it was about three weeks ago.”
“It’s very difficult,” Doig said. “If they’re coming to our place and wiping us over the first time like we’d done to them, then the second time you want to get back at them. We knew in the second half they’re going to throw everything at us and we need to be ready and we need to give it back to them.”
Quinnipiac, which dominated possession and dictated pace, was also without one of its top guns.
Sophomore forward Eamon Whelan has suffered from a lingering groin injury all season. He started the last five regular season games but was held out Sunday, in what Da Costa called a gamble.
“We need players who are at 100 percent to be able to contribute to the team,” Da Costa said. “When Eamon is 100 percent he’s a big help. Today we decided to go without him. It’s a little bit of a risk, but I think it paid off. We have a few days to try to get him back and we’ll see where that takes us.
Starters warming up. Eamon Whelan *not* warming up. Jacket on. Had lingering groin injury throughout season, but has started last 5 games pic.twitter.com/3AMeJdjFqI
— Dylan Fearon (@DylanFearon_) November 5, 2017
Quinnipiac will enjoy an off day Monday before preparing for its next road opponent.
The Bobcats take on the MAAC regular season champions, Fairfield, in the semifinals Thursday night.
