The fall sports season has come to an end, and the final tallies are in on Oberlin men’s soccer. The injury-plagued Yeomen finished the year with an overall record of one win and 14 losses, and a North Coast Athletic
Conference (NCAC) total of zero wins and nine losses.
“It was just that kind of a season,” Coach Blake New said. “We started to play better in the last couple of weeks, but we had lots of injuries.” The team started out the season short-handed, with three of last year’s players sitting out, including last season’s high-scoring, sophomore forward Jesse Kipp, who tore his ACL and missed the first month of the season.
Oberlin lost their final five games of the season. On Oct. 10, Allegheny defeated the Yeomen by the score of 4-0. That Saturday they lost to Hiram 5-2. Wednesday the seventeenth they lost 5-3 to Wooster, on the 20th they were trounced by Earlham 5-1, before losing on the 24th in a nail-biter to Wabash 2-1.
The last few games of the season were all tough for the Yeomen, but there were some bright moments. In the loss to Earlham the team was able to keep the number of shots to a minimum, and the Yeomen were only out-shot 14 to 12. Sophomore Phil Kreniske scored one of his four goals in that game. However, the frustration of that game led to warnings for Kreniske, Coach New and junior goalie Simon Spaid.
Jay Rosenthal got his first assist of the season in the loss to Wooster on a goal by Kreniske, and sophomore Issaku Kohl also came through off an assist by Kipp. Senior goalkeeper Yoav Tal also had six saves.
The game on the 24th against Wabash was a good effort by the Yeomen: they out-shot Wabash 10 to six, and beat them on corner kicks by three. However, the defense was not able to prevent two goals scored by Wabash’s Brandon Hall and Carlos Aquire, and thus Kreniske’s goal off an assist by junior co-captain Rich
Braithwaite went to waste.
On the whole, the Yeomen had a rough season. Plagued by injuries and with a largely young, inexperienced team, Coach New probably phrased it best, “We’re going to look at this season as a bump in the road.”