Published: April 17, 2008

The Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) soccer team lost 3-0 to the Maltese Dolphins on April 6 at Bryant High School in Astoria, Queens.

Fordham was looking to play a more defensive-minded game coming into the contest, with Richard Scott, FCLC ’11, Peter Muller, FCLC ’10, and Michael Hamburger, FLS ’09, anchoring the defense for FCLC.

“For this game in particular, we played much more defensively due to the shortage of players for the game,” Muller said. “We wanted to conserve energy and then take advantage of the offensive breaks that we got.”

As a result, the majority of the first half was played on the FCLC side of the field. The Dolphins attempted numerous shots from every direction but could not score, growing frustrated as shots sailed over the top of the crossbar.

The FCLC defense played with intensity and allowed few scoring chances. The game remained scoreless at halftime.

In the second half, that same energy that FCLC used to keep the game close wore the team down. The Dolphins’ shots that were not landing on goal in the first half soon began finding their target in the second.

“We just got really tired in the second half,” said Muller, FCLC co-captain. “We were keeping them even until then. Our lack of depth and inablility to substitute our players throughout the game could not match their team.”

The first goal was a quick, hard shot that whizzed past the FCLC defense and into the back of the net. With a goal surrendered, all of the hard work to keep the game scoreless had tired out the entire FCLC team.

Another Dolphins shot angled from the right side of the field made the score 2-0 after a failed clear attempt landed on the foot of a Dolphins striker. The game became 3-0 a few minutes later when a Dolphins striker made a move on the FCLC defender and scored.

FCLC drops to 0-3 in the season and remains last in the standings.