Post-game - Men's Soccer Quotes

Plenty of interesting things said by Rees and his player. All that being said, the two were glowing about the post-half effort by the Stags. Whether or not that can carry over to next week's game against Loyola and the MAAC remains to be seen.

But, tonight could be a coming of age for this team.

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Jack Burridge
Comments on the game
“It was a rough start in the first half. In the second half performance was unreal. The guy’s just showed so much heart, grit, and determination. We had a goal disallowed in the second half. I’m proud of the lads, we did fantastic. If we carry this performance over to the MAAC games, I don’t see it being a problem at all for us to be a contender in the MAAC.

On halftime adjustments
At halftime, we decided that we were defending far too deep. We decided to take the game to them rather than let them come to us. We stepped up our game. We showed a lot of determination. In the second half, we came out straight from the races.

On the disallowed goal in the second half
Apparently, the official said that I climbed up above the defender. But, at the time, I was away from the defender. I don’t know why he called that. When I asked the official, he said that I held them. I don’t know.

On the play before his penalty kick and the penalty kick
On the PK. I couldn’t really do anything the goalie came so far out and smashed into me. He’s a 200-pound guy, you know. I was confident. I felt I could put the ball through.

On heading into the heart of the MAAC schedule
Like I said, if we take that into the MAAC games, I don’t see how we can’t win the MAAC and go through to the national tournament. Loyola is doing really well. But tonight, you could’ve put Real Madrid out there in our second half performance and we would’ve given them a good game.

On playing Boston College and an ACC team
BC is a great team. Everyone knows Boston College. Every guy all week has been looking forward to this game. From the start of the season, everyone on the team has been up for it. That’s why the start was so disappointing (given) that this was such a big game. We had a fantastic practice the other night, we had a fantastic second half. If we can take that into the MAAC – we just lost 2-1 to BC, and a lot of teams would’ve lost by five or six goals. I’m proud of the boys.


Head Coach Carl Rees
Comments on the game and his team’s effort
I’m fine with the way we played overall – even in the first half. You have to understand that this is a top ACC team. This is a team that was ranked number one in the whole country going into the national tournament last year. With that said, we have a team made in a large part of sophomores and juniors. Even in the first half, I thought we did quite well. But, I felt that there is another gear to us, and that we hit our stride in the second half. We were more assertive. We made errors, but they were errors of commission not omission. We weren’t scared to play, and we showed real good character. We had a goal disallowed and we scored a goal. At the end, there was only one team happy at the final whistle. If we can do that to an ACC team, than I’m happy with that. And our lads should be pleased with that. This is a big effort. I’m pleased for them, and they proved to themselves that they can compete with any team.

On the disallowed goal
I didn’t see anything from the sidelines, quite frankly.

On halftime adjustments
We needed to meet them higher at the field. Our starting position as defenders needed to be tighter on the ball. I thought that we needed to be collectively more assertive. Once we got momentum started and the crowd got into it, on Lessing field, we are a difficult team to stop at that point. Even at the end, they are scrambling and the crowd is behind us, it is an exciting contest. We just need a little bit of luck, but we’ll make our own luck down the stretch if we play like we did tonight.

On what you can take out of tonight going into the MAAC season
I think we got to see three non-regular starters stand up and be counted tonight. That was pleasant. It gives us some options come the MAAC. We played tonight without our two central defenders, and one of them is our captain. I thought that Lentine and Piedrahita led the team with dignity and ambition. Character is going to dictate the success of this team, like any other team. There was a lot of positive character straits being demonstrated tonight.

On Tom Clements’ injury
Clements – two weeks cracked ribs, hopefully, hopefully. It happened at Iona.