Rutgers pressing on through injuries and suspensions

In the world of Rutgers men’s soccer these days, it should be no surprise that coach Dan Donigan is hoping a game in which his team was markedly outplayed and did not have four players due to suspensions, can be something to build upon.

Because despite those negatives, the result was positive as the Scarlet Knights escaped Princeton with a 1-0 victory for just their second win of the season Tuesday night.

“We look at it as the first half of the season and the second half of the season,” Donigan said. “This was the start of the second half of the season. We’re halfway though, we’re banged up and we had guys suspended and we were still able to come away with a result against what I consider a very, very good Princeton team. It was on the road, it’s an in-state rivalry, there’s always a lot at stake with that game so it was awesome to walk out of there with a 1-0 win.”

Especially since the Knights have been on the opposite end of those results on occasion this year, having outplayed an opponent only to lose. Princeton out-shot RU 19-4, but Miles Hackett’s goal in the 55th minute was all goalie Rafael Pereira needed as he made seven saves for the clean sheet.

“They definitely had the better of the play,” Donigan said. “But we defended, we did what we had to do. We picked and chose when we had to go forward and the tactics worked for us, fortunately. On any given day they can backfire, but Tuesday night they worked. We’re obviously very fortunate and feel really good about ourselves going into the next game.”

Rutgers (2-7-1, 0-4) returns to the pitch Sunday at home against Wisconsin in search of its first Big Ten win. Three of the Knights’ first four conference opponents were ranked among the nation’s Top 15 and two were in the Top 5. Of their other three losses, two were against Top 5 teams.

“Scheduling that difficult can really be a detriment to your season,” Donigan said. “I have to re-evaluate how I’m going to do my schedule moving forward.”

The Knights were coming off a one-win season and frustrations have been building ever since. So much so that Rutgers has been plagued with yellow and red cards, and had two seniors miss a 2-1 overtime loss to Canisius in a game that was there for the taking.

“It’s a catch-22,” Donigan said. “You play such a tough schedule and you don’t want to back down or fall out of tackles or go in soft; because injuries happen when you don’t go in strong. When I gave my game roster to Indiana they had two yellow cards and I had about 17. (Indiana coach) Todd Yeagley even joked ‘Wow you guys are really playing Jersey soccer,’ because of the physicality of our games. We have a tough schedule but at the same time you have to have discipline to not get those yellow cards; so as not to compound your problems.”

Unfortunately for Rutgers, the issues have not stopped there. Senior forward Ethan Vanacore-Decker, a Pennington School product who came to RU by way of Connecticut and Louisville, suffered a fifth-degree separation of the shoulder against Ohio State and is gone for the season.

And Donigan intentionally weakened the depth of his squad for the Princeton game by suspending four players for academic reasons.

“I had three freshmen and one senior miss study hall hours or miss tutoring sessions,” Donigan said. “You go to college for a reason. That’s to get your degree. That’s what this program is about. Unfortunately, I had to make some difficult decisions and go into that Princeton game short-handed again because guys can’t hold uphold their end of the bargain. I’m not going to deal with that. I’ll get fired for wins and losses but I won’t get fired because my kids don’t go to class, or go to study hall, or miss their tutoring sessions. That’s just the reality. I don’t deal with that BS.”

One guy who did play against Princeton and put in a good effort was Notre Dame graduate Brian Hawkins, who has slowly been rounding into shape after taking an injury redshirt last season.

“He’s starting to come into his own a little bit,” Donigan said. “I thought he had a great game last night, I thought he did a really good job. It’s where you play him. He’s not a lone frontrunner, he’s not very good with his back to goal but he’s very good coming out of the midfield. He’s still one of my key guys and one of my favorite players. I love him as a player, but at the end of the day he needs to produce, that’s what it’s all about.”

Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores and find more college soccer at www.trentonian.com/ college-sports.