Men's soccer loses, goes back to basics at Walsh

After a poor 4-2 loss to Denison University on Saturday, the men's soccer team once again went back to the basics and played much better soccer in their 4-0 loss to Walsh College on Tuesday.

"We tried real hard against Denison, but didn't point our efforts in the right direction," Coach Chris Barker said. "For Walsh we went back to the basics and played much better."

"We played good soccer against Walsh," senior JT Engelhardt said. "We had good ball movement and ball control, one and two-touch passing, and nice balls on the ground. All the things we've been practicing came together."

The team did not execute these kinds of things against Denison, though they definitely played hard. "Our problem isn't not playing hard," senior Brendan Cody said. "We have great attitude. We're just not playing together as a unit. We've also done a lot of realignment with positions, though now we're settling down." Cody has been shifted from goal keep to striker.

"We didn't have any real teamwork," Barker said. "Our two goals were purely hustle goals."

Denison scored its first goal off of a bad goal kick that only made it about ten yards out of the box. "They won the kick and then one-touched it to a player who just shot it by the goal keeper," Engelhardt said.

The Yeomen went into the second half down 1-0. The Big Red got two quick goals and the Yeomen found themselves battling back to make it 3-2.

"[Senior Sam] Krasnow finished up on a really nice shot from [first-year] Sam Hopkins," Engelhardt said. "Then one of our defenders had a trip in the goal box and they scored on the penalty kick. [Sophomore] John Nishan got a red card and we had to play with ten men. He would have really been great to have against Walsh. He's a great player and provides a real spark on defense."

Denison easily put in its fourth goal and left the game at 4-2. The Yeomen didn't leave feeling they had played in top form. "There was a lot of kicking," Engelhardt said. "We had more risky passes. A lot of them were in the air."

Barker thought another problem the team has is spread the field and playing with more depth. "We can't play flat or defend in a line," the coach said.

"Rather than having everyone cover a man, if the ball is on the other side of the field then a player can hang back from his man to provide more defensive depth," Engelhardt said. "That way we can have a sweeper who can clear the ball hard because they're already facing the field."

After working on these things, the team went into the Walsh game and played much better overall, though they couldn't manage to convert a point. "We outshot Walsh," Barker said. "We had some good shots, but their keeper had some good saves. Their four goals just came off of mistakes." The Yeomen had 14 shots to Walsh's 12.

Going back to the basics seems to have helped give the Yeomen a new direction to go in. "We needed to hit a low," Barker said. "I think we'll do better now. To play at the next level everybody has to move. We have to think two passes ahead so that the other team has to run to keep up."

Saturday the team plays Ohio Dominican College at home. "They have one really good player," Barker said. "I'm debating whether or not to do something crazy like stick one player on him for the whole game, someone who can run all day. Then it will be more like ten versus ten then eleven versus eleven."

"We have to play just as hard and physical as we did against Walsh," Engelhardt said. "Walsh was big and tough and talked a lot. We have to play just as tough but not lose our cool."