The stadium known as the University of Rhode Island Soccer Complex was packed to the edges last night for the cross-state rivalry matchup between the Rams and the Providence College Friars. The Rams entered the night coming off a huge win against another Big East opponent in the UConn Huskies and were looking to bring home one more before they close the non-conference set on the road. The match got off to a speedy start as both sides pressured on the final third within the first ten minutes of the game. A few set pieces by each side found their way into the hands of the keepers before one in the 28th minute on a crossing restart from PC's Christopher Roman, initially found the
hands of Rams keeper Stefan Schmidt but popped out landing on the foot of Gevork Diarbian who sent it to the back of the open net. The Rams continued through the first and second half to pepper the net manned by Lukas Burns, racking up 12 shots through most of regulation until "lucky number 13" by Patrick Agyemang found the back of the net in the 88th minute sending shockwaves and a roar through the fans. The two sides continued to battle through the two 10 minute overtime periods with a flurry of offense coming from the Rams who were playing a man-up since the 55th minute following the Red Card issued to PC's Davis Smith for his accumulation of two yellow cards in the span of a minute. Agyemang, Purcell and Castaneda all had opportunities on net to finish the match but could not find a gap past the hands of Burns. As the final whistle sounded, the match fell as a 1-1 draw. Rams Head Coach Garreth Elliott said "everyone on this team played with heart and hunger tonight. We played the best we could for 90 minutes. I know there are a lot of broken emotions right now, they wanted this win so badly, for the school, for the fans, for themselves but they should be very proud of what they did." PC Head Coach Craig Stewart, in talking about his side said "That's a great team and we have one as well, we expected this to be a tough match, whenever you play an in-state rival, we can be very proud of what we did today in a very challenging game." Rams goal scorer and team captain Patrick Agyemang said "I wanted this so bad, I had some great opportunities and I let my teammates down but we did come out with a level result". When asked about his teammates coming over to pull him up off the pitch after missing the shot in OT2, Agyemang added, "that's why I chose to come here, there's a brotherhood on this team that not many people can understand except for us. We push each other to succeed, we pick each other up when we're down and we work together to achieve the same goals. I love this team, all the guys on it, the coaches and this school." Agyemang and the Rams will have plenty of more opportunities to represent the school and in front of the URI Soccer Complex fans as the Rams turn their heads towards the approaching Atlantic 10 Conference season coming soon.