Bobcat Offense Catches Late Season Spark

Frostburg State gained their fourth win of the season on Saturday, Sept. 24, with a 5-0 dominating win over Wesley College. Throughout much of the first half, things stayed pretty tight, as both teams matched each other blow for blow. After missing a few good scoring chances, in the 37^th minute, Bobcat junior Rodrigo Valenzuela scored on a header off of a corner kick taken by  freshman Ronnie Sotelo. The Bobcat offense finally got rolling in the second half, and became almost unstoppable. In the 74^th minute,  Bobcat sophomore Carvell Akuffo was able to beat Wesley goalkeeper, Kyle Springsteen, to make it 2-0. Just a minute later, in the 75^th minute, Rodrigo Valenzuela would strike again for his second goal of the night and put the Bobcats up 3-0. In the 81^st minute, the bad luck continued for Wesley, when the opposing team’s Jaki Farlow accidentally deflected a ball into his own net trying to clear it, which put FSU up 4-0. Just five minutes later in the 86^th minute, Senior Anthony Depaz put in the final Frostburg goal, giving FSU a 5-0 victory and bringing their record to 4-5.

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, the Bobcats gained their second straight victory with another dominating win over Shenandoah University with a score of 4-1. The Bobcats went into the game with offensive momentum after their scoring surge in the victory against Wesley. The Bobcats got on the attack early, scoring just nine minutes into the game when sophomore Serigne Gueye knocked home a goal, giving FSU a 1-0 lead. In the 30^th minute, the Bobcats struck again, this time off of Rodrigo Valenzuela, who knocked in his third goal in two games and put FSU up 2-0. In the 40^th minute, Shenandoah would respond with a goal by the Hornets Connor Gordon, which would cut the Bobcats lead to just 2-1 going into halftime. The second half proved to be all Bobcats though, when in the 78^th minute sophomore Kelvin Tata extended the Bobcats lead to 3-1. Soon after, sophomore Carvell Akuffo would put the nail in the coffin with another goal to give FSU a 4-1 lead with just minutes to go. Frostburg State outshot Shenandoah 15-11, with 11 of those 15 being shots on goal. The Bobcats improve to 5-5 and have won four of their last five games. The Bobcats have now outscored their opponents this year by a total 24-11.