Men's Soccer Rolls

Kickin' it: Senior Ian Maher prepares to boot one downfield. (photo by Liz Fox)

When you're approaching a hill, it certainly helps to hit the start of it running rather than walking. The Oberlin men's soccer team knew this. So, with a hill of tough, pivotal conference games ahead of them, it was no surprise that the Yeomen hit it in full stride.

Coming off a win against Wabash on Sept. 30, the Yeomen had some positive momentum to push their running pace. Wins in all but the last of five games up to Wednesday put the Yeomen's overrall record at a highly respectable 7-7-1 and 3-3-1 in NCAC play.

The Yeomen started it off with the toughest, most competitive and intense game of the the week when they faced Kenyon. Trailing 2-0 with 30 minutes to play, the Yeomen waged a successful comeback led by Nick Disanza "who played well up front" and Alex Maly "who scored a great goal (on a) half-volley in the top corner from 20 yards," Head Coach Blake New said.

Disanza said the credit for the win was due to "[the team having] great composure . . . [we] kept our heads up and played hard for the whole game." That positive momentum kept snowballing, according to Disanza. "We're going into the [Case Western] game positive, knowing we can win if we play right. To get back to .500, a win at Case does that."

With purpose clearly defined, the Yeomen ran into the Case game as ready as they've been for a game this year. This was largely due to the scouting of coach New, who realizes the importance of studying the opponent. Second-year midfielder PJ Park praised coach New on his game preperation, "Blake won their innermost secrets."

In the Case game, the Yeomen couldn't hold off the "trash goals" according to Park and the game went into overtime. After a tie against Allegheny in their first overtime contest of the year, the Yeomen decided to set the pace of the overtime right away. Their recent game-specific practice of quick passing and fast breaks seemed to pay off. The Yeomen scored and put away the victory over Case.

Having yet to play the whole 90 minutes up to their potential, the Yeomen began to turn it around with their defense. "We need to focus on defense," Park said. Indeed defense was the concentration of the team's play against Hiram. As proof that what they concentrate on they achieve, the Yeomen shutout Hiram 2-0.

The Yeomen offense seemed to have its goals in clear focus as well. First-year Jesse Kipp, who has established himself as a major factor in the Yeomen offense, scored the first goal. The team leader in goals, assists, and overall points, senior Sam Hopkins, put away the second after an assist from junior Alex Maly.

For their next contest of the week, the Yeomen traveled to Ohio Wesleyan University. Shortly after battling to a 0 - 0 tie at the 30-minute mark, a gap in the Yeomen defense was exploited. Phil Hoffman scored the first of his two goals of the day against the Yeomen. 20 minutes later, OWU got another goal by Jon Van Horn. The Yeomen offense couldn't quite muster any magic on their end either. Seven minutes later, OWU got their final goal.

Even though the Yeomen lost their week-capping game, it was still a successful week. And the last game had its good points. "They are a top team in the nation," Coach New said. The Yeomen defense can pull some saves when they need to, (goalie Caleb Stokes is averaging .644 saves per game and has 125 total saves for the year), but they just couldn't hold off the OWU offense for the whole game. With continued practice of their fast breaking drills, and focusing on getting out to an early lead, the Yeomen offense hopes to "put away more [goals] and break our three goal barrier" Parker said. The Yeomen are making progress. They are only steps away from putting all the pieces together. These remaining few games mark a juncture that the team is now at according to Park, "where they have learned to play like a well-oiled machine." That machine will need to be kept up and running for the whole 90 minutes in the tournament game.