Men's Soccer has decisive first victory

After a frustrating 5-1 loss to Wittenberg University on Saturday, the men's soccer team took a depleted team down to Columbus on Tuesday to flog and pommel Capital College 7-1.

Against Wittenberg, the Yeomen proved that, once again, they can hang with any team for one half. It's the two half thing that gives them problems. "We played a good first half," Barker said. "Their one goal was a fluke." The game was 1-0 Wittenberg at the half.

"We broke down in the second half," goal keeper first-year Scott Duthie said. "We should have put more goals in."

"Defensively we let up in the second," Barker said. "We can't do that, we have to play defense through the whole game."

Barker's squad went into the game with it's new three-four-three lineup that is intended to provide more offense by moving a defender to forward. Sophomore Zach Fine was up front for the Yeomen. "We adjusted pretty well to the lineup change," Duthie said. "Zach played really well up front."

"The loss wasn't because of the lineup," Barker said. "It was because of dumb mistakes."

Other defenders might not agree. "We played hard but broke down in back," sophomore David Lessinger said. "They got a few through-passes to the back that they shouldn't have. We were still adjusting to the lineup change."

The team did have more offense than they have exhibited in the past, though in the second half Wittenberg put in four more goals to senior James Richter's one that came off of a surprise free kick. "The offense was less than what would have wanted," Lessinger said. "The forwards and half-backs were playing without enough rear support. We were hanging back to much."

For Tuesday's game Barker made another lineup change. "For Capitol I hedged my bet and played a little more defensively-minded," he said. The coach flip-flopped first-year Sam Hopkins and Lessinger between midfield and forward.

"They're both very good about distributing the ball," Barker said. "Sam is more of a scoring threat. David did a great job at center and really opened up Sam." Hopkins had three goals. Fine had two while sophomores Matt Maddy and Jonathan Wilson split the other two.

"Sam has played a lot outside and I've played a lot in the middle in the past, so the switch seemed very natural," Lessinger said.

"Capital is a little weaker than teams we've played and we played smarter," Barker said. "We passed real well, had less dribbling and good runs. All our goals were good goals, not garbage goals."

Defense was also strong against Capital. "We've changed the way we're marking and it worked well this game," Lessinger said. "We had some good one-two touch passes."

The team only had fourteen of their 32 players as many had commitments they couldn't get out of. "It helped having fewer players," Barker said. "The players on the field knew they weren't going to get a rest and played really strong."

"We only had three subs," Duthie said. "It was a whole team effort and we played really well with the players we had."

This was the soccer team's first win of the season and they acted accordingly. "The team feels great," Barker said. "They were singing on the bus and loving life. Winning isn't everything, but losing really sucks, especially when a team is better than the scores they've showed. They've worked hard and deserve a win."

Saturday the Yeomen play Denison University. "I've heard they're a solid team," Barker said. "If we play good solid defense for 90 minutes we can beat them. We've played at least one good half with every team we've played. We just can't let up."

"It was close last year," Lessinger said. "We'll be a little extra motivated because our parents will be there."

"We're psyched up for Saturday," Duthie said.