Losses prompt Yeomen to go on the offensive

With two more losses added to the men's soccer team's 0-5 record, Coach Chris Barker has been forced to make some changes.

The team lost 2-0 to Allegheny College on Saturday, and 3-0 to Kenyon College on Tuesday.

The team has been fairly on top of things defensively but is struggling offensively. At Allegheny University the team started off dominating but just couldn't find a goal. "We came out great for the first 15 minutes, but just couldn't get it in the net," Barker said. "It turned into a jumble so we had to back off."

The game was a see-saw of offensive capability. Oberlin would play well, then falter, and then Allegheny would pick up the pace before letting Oberlin rally back. "We played in ebbs and flows," Barker said. "We'd play well, then they would. We just never had any great offensive opportunities. We couldn't finish well. We'd have a great pass through the midfield, but then we'd just stall."

The see-saw waffled through the whole game, eventually sliding the Yeomen below the Gators by two goals.

Three days later the team psyched themselves up to play nationally ranked Kenyon. "Our first half was very inspired," Barker said. "We didn't sit back, attacked every ball and played hard."

"We played really solid," first-year Sam Hopkins said. "Our defense was excellent and our intensity was the best it's been all year." Yeomen defense held Kenyon to 0-0 at the half.

"Against Kenyon we had such strong preconceptions that we knew we had to shut them down defensively," sophomore Chris Nytch said. "Our first half was definitely the strong point of the game."

The team tried to come out in the second half, accomplish the same goal, and maybe get a point, but they let Kenyon away with three unanswered. There was not enough offense to even think about evening the score.

"In the second half we were too content with the first half, and sat back," Barker said. "Kenyon's a good team, they took advantage of that and started pounding balls down at us."

"We played too much defense," Nytch said.

Barker started making his changes to initiate some offense. "Late in the second half I took [senior Brendan] Cody out of goal and put him on the field," Barker said. "I also moved [sophomore] Zach Fine from defense to the front."

This line-up change gave Barker three forwards and three defenders instead of two and four, and it looks like the coach is going to stick with this for a while.

"It will take at least a game or two to get used to that," Hopkins said. "It will take some adjustment on the defender's part. If it does work and the defense can handle playing without a sweeper, the offense will really benefit."

With this past week's games throwing such a harsh light on the Yeomen's need for offense, Barker has started using more offensively-minded drills during practice. "We isolate that half of the field and just start kicking balls in, to get them used to the situation," he said.

"In practice we've been emphasizing making more creative runs and unselfish runs," Hopkins said. "We've been stressing defense so much that our offense has been in the back of our minds. We were working too hard on defense when the defenders were doing a great job."

"Soccer is such a free-flowing game," Barker said. "You have to play aggressive and be active, make the other team be reactive. The offense has to provide opportunities and options."

Hopefully the increased attack mindset of the Yeomen will spur them on to score some points. They have one goal to their credit this season, and will need much more than that to beat Wittenberg University on Saturday.

"They're supposed to be equally as good as Kenyon," Hopkins said. "But teams that are great we usually play up to."

"Even though we lost to Kenyon, we showed we can play with them," Barker said. "We can focus emotionally and mentally as a unit for 90 straight minutes."

"We're doing better and better each game," Nytch said. "We have enough positive attitude on the team to keep moving forward."