Keene State’s Men’s Soccer opened up its 2025 season with a 2-0 win over the Worcester State Lancers. The Lancers, coming off of a prior 2-0 loss to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, were looking to bounce back against the Owls.
The Owls began this game with lots of intensity and energy, with senior defender and Captain Dylan Chambers showing communication with his team. KSC had a few early shots towards the beginning of the game, including a free kick that resulted in a header just missing the top right of the goal.
As the game progressed and the physicality continued, the first of many yellow cards for the Owls started to be called.
Following this, the Lancers had a promising chance through the middle stretch of the first half on a cross with a near header goal. Worcester State had another opportunity right above the box that was stopped by senior goalkeeper Eldin Husanovic. The senior went on to have three total saves against Worcester State.
The Owls then started to put the pressure on when junior forward Cristian Correa was awarded a penalty kick after he was taken down inside the box. Correa buried the penalty in the bottom right of the net at the 31:47 minute mark to give Keene an early 1-0 lead.
Worcester State followed up with a great look at the top of the box that was blocked by fifth-year Captain Damir Hamzic. The two senior captains both had excellent first halves on the defensive side of the ball
The second half began with an early corner kick for the Lancers, but Husanovic collected the ball easily. Following this, there was some back and forth between the teams, with the physical play continuing on both ends until the Owls had a grade A chance with the ball loose in front of the Lancers’ goaltender. Keene carried the play for the ensuing minutes with excellent ball movement from first-year forward Tommaso Brivio.
Sophomore forward Dorian Wilczynski had one of the highlight plays on the day with a beautiful slide tackle to turn the ball over. The sophomore had multiple impactful plays on both sides of the ball.
The chippy play continued as one of Worcester State’s forwards collided with Husanovic. He stayed in the game, uninjured after being down for a few minutes. The intensity rose in the last 15 minutes of play as it was still only a one-goal game with the Lancers desperate for the tying goal.
Worcester State’s hopes of coming back were getting slimmer as the 84-minute mark came, and Keene State was pressuring. Senior forward Parker Root buried a final goal off of a rebound that gave the Owls a 2-0 advantage with under six minutes to play. The Owls would hold on to win their home opener over the Lancers of Worcester State with a final score of 2-0.
The Owls will now head to Albany, N.Y. to take on the Russell Sage Alligators on Friday, Sept. 5 at 4 p.m.
Matt Cabral can be contacted at
mcabral@kscequinox.com
