A city rivalry game always gets a team excited and up for a good match. This was one of the ones that was going to get a team excited as RMU (3-1-2) was looking forward to an away trip to Duquesne (3-1-1).
A hot start to the season for the Colonials going undefeated in their first five games unfortunately ended tonight as they could not put one past the goalie of the Dukes, dropping this game 1-0.
An away trip to Duquesne has always been an unhappy time for the Colonials as they have yet to get a win on Arthur J Rooney Field. This trip made the record worse for RMU as they are now 0-9-0 away from the Dukes.
This game started out as a city rivalry should: very choppy with not much of a flow to it as there were a combined eight fouls in the first few minutes. Coach Potter praised his team for persisting at the beginning of the match.
“I think you get that sometimes playing away from home,” Coach Potter said. “Duquesne is a really good team. They are a good opponent and have shown that the last couple of years. I thought we weathered the storm early and really found our way in the middle of the first half. Going into halftime, we felt very good about where we were.”
Seconds before halftime the Dukes had a player sent off due to receiving a second yellow card, which meant they had to play the second half down a man. Right before half this was the perfect opportunity to regroup and come out firing and on the attack for the rest of the game.
Coach Potter spoke on what his message was at half to get the team ready to come back out and play.
“We didn’t have to change a bunch of stuff just because a guy got sent off, we just had to use the ball well,” Coach Potter said. “We tried to anticipate what they would do when they went down a man. But the main message was: don’t change a bunch of things just because you are a man up.”
Starting the second half, the Colonials came out and controlled the ball for majority of the time trying to find that goal. Possession for RMU was always there, but they lacked the final product of someone being able to get on the end of a cross or put away a change they had during the half.
Playing a man-up, a team always wants to try and control the game and put something on the net. The Colonials had seven shots, but only one was on target.
“It was tough. It had shades of that Niagara game where we had a lot of the ball and did a lot of things, but we couldn’t find goals,” Coach Potter said. “It’s funny, we had a period earlier in the season where we kept scoring. Tonight, we just didn’t create the important goal that we needed.”
Playing six matches and losing versus a good team is still a strong start to the season. Taking things from a loss and building on them is what teams try to do no matter what.
“I think it was kind of a nice reality check for our team,” Coach Potter said. “We’ve been unbeaten, so hopefully it’s a good reality check as we enter a really important phase of the season with these conference games.”
Robert Morris will be back home at the North Athletic Complex on Saturday, Sept. 16 as they take on IUPUI for a conference matchup. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
