Men's Soccer Struggles To Finish

Yeomen Unable to Put Wittenberg or Denison Away This Week

The Oberlin men's soccer team encountered some stiff competition this week from conference powers Wittenberg and Denison. The Yeomen started the week with a 3-0 victory over Bluffton on Saturday. They turned around to play Wittenberg the next day in what turned out to be a bitter contest ending in a 3-2 loss for Oberlin. On Tuesday they faced Denison in another close match, resulting in a 2-1 loss. This week's tribulations put the Yeomen at 0-2-1 in the conference and 3-6-1 overall.

The Yeomen came out against Bluffton with no lack of confidence. They controlled the game from the beginning. First-year Nick Disanza put Oberlin on top first with an early goal, a lead which they managed to hold onto until the half.

In the second half, senior Sam Hopkins put two more in the back of the net for the 3-0 win. The Yeomen displayed ample dominance of the control of play, out-shooting the opposition 21 to six. Sophomore midfielder P.J. Park displayed his skill on the ball moving up the wing; twice he had the opportunity to drop a nice back-heel to Hopkins. Both opportunities resulted in shots on goal.

The Yeomen came out equally strongly against Wittenberg, but the Tigers weren't going to let the game go that easily. Wittenberg scored two goals early on, but the Yeomen didn't just drop their heads. They fought back to bring the score within one. The goal came from a header by first-year Jamie Davis on a flick by Disanza.

The Tigers wouldn't let up and continued to score yet another goal, but the Yeomen's intensity never dropped. In the last 30 seconds of the first half Disanza ripped a shot at the goalie, and when it was deflected, first-year Jesse Kipp took the opportunity to put the ball into an open net.

"Going into the second half, I thought we were going to win because I thought we had the momentum and we still outplayed them all second half," Hopkins said. "We just didn't put any goals away"

The Yeomen controlled the play for the entire second half but were unable to put one into the back of the net.

Said Head Coach Blake New, "We pressed them the entire time. We had most of the play and we just couldn't stick one in,"

"Over the weekend we played pretty well as a team, actually, so it was disconcerting that we didn't win both games," Hopkins said. "I feel that we played well enough and deserved to win both games."

The game on Tuesday was a slightly different story. The Yeomen had more trouble playing competitively.

"We didn't play well enough to beat them; again we beat ourselves," Hopkins said.

Denison scored a goal in the first half and nothing else was scored before the half. In the second half, Oberlin pushed harder and controlled a lot of the play. Midway through the second half, one of Denison's players received a red card for spitting on sophomore Richard Braithwaite, giving Oberlin the man advantage.

Sophomore Simon Spaid, who usually plays a center back position, was out with an injury, and his absence might have been the determining factor: late in the second half Oberlin lost control of the ball in the back while they were pushed up and Denison, capitalized scoring again.

The Yeomen continued to push forward, and Hopkins managed to score a goal. It wasn't enough, as Denison held on for the win.

"We make two silly mistakes in a game where they have three total shots on goal. They score two of them and we lose," New said.

In addition to the red card, Denison received two yellow cards and the coach received a red card after the game was over.

"They're a pretty whiny team, and I knew with the official that we had that they would get into trouble," New said.

"We're playing well. It's just a few finishing touches that we need in order to bring the team together, and then we'll start winning those close games," Disanza said. "Just a few couple of errors, that if we don't make, we win the game."

"When you try to build an attack and you get forward and you do things correct and it breaks down either through a bad pass, bad touch or bad trap then you're not going to be successful. That is what has hurt us the past couple days," New said.

It's these mistakes that are keeping the Yeomen from making themselves a truly competitive team with a winning conference record.

"In my mind, we should be 2-0-1 in the conference," New said. "Instead, we're 0-2-1."