With five seconds remaining in the match, Radford forward Davori Husadzinovic was left one-on-one with goalkeeper Christopher Widman, and scored his second goal of the contest to seal the 2-1 victory for the Highlanders (6-5) and drop N.C. State to 4-5-3 overall.
The goal left the Wolfpack players stunned, as they failed to secure a win for the fifth time in six games.
Coach George Tarantini made the decision to play most of its defenders away from their goal in the final minutes, allowing Husadzinovic to break away and score.
“We want to score and win the game, so we push everybody up,” Tarantini said. “It was not supposed to happen. I take full responsibility of that. I think that of the win there are no excuses and the best team won. So they deserve [it], congratulations to them.”
Radford set the tone early, notching its first goal only 45 seconds into the game. According to Tarantini, his players came out flat and the other team was better prepared.
“We struggled in the first half, we really did,” Tarantini said. “We were very exhausted. There are no excuses. The other team did a better job, they were better organized and that’s how they won.”
State’s only goal was scored at the 70:00 mark by junior midfielder Marianito Montero. It was Montero’s first career goal, and sophomores Alan Sanchez and Daniel Fish notched an assist on the play.
According to freshman defender Tyler Lassiter, the Pack had some good looks in the second half but was unable to convert for a variety of reasons.
“We came out weak and we should have stepped up in the second half,” Lassiter said. “We had our chances. It hit the posts a couple times. I guess we didn’t play up the level we should have played at. I guess we could have played harder.”
The loss to Radford was a far cry from State’s 5-0 domination against High Point just a few days earlier, according to senior forward El Hadj Cisse.
“The way we played against High Point — that’s the way we were supposed to play in this game,” Cisse said.
“In the first few minutes we just gave the ball away. I think we just [had a] lack of commitment. That’s like the second game we’ve given away after Longwood. We were supposed to bounce back from this one and be ready for Wake Forest, but we just gave it away. I feel so depressed right now.”
After the defeat, Tarantini took co-captains Cisse and senior defender Hugh Cronin aside. According to Cisse, Tarantini told them they must remain positive about the loss to lead the team next weekend at No. 1 Wake Forest.
“He just said, ‘This is the turning point, we can quit or you can go forward,'” Cisse said. “If we quit right now we just have to go to Wake Forest and lose 15-0. If we stay positive and we go to Wake Forest, that’s when we can bounce back.”
