Men's Soccer Finishes Out Season With a Win

Yeomen Lose to Earlham but Defeat LaRoche

Sometimes in a game of hearts when the goal is to get all the cards, an opponent will steal the one you need with only a few cards left to play. Some people will throw in their cards apathetically, while others will finish out with their best. The College of Wooster got the heart that the Oberlin men's soccer team needed with a 3-2 overtime win. Since that game Oberlin has won one and lost another. They rounded out the year 8-9-1 record overrall and 3-5-1 in conference play.

The remarkable character and class of the Yeomen team was evident in the way they played the last few cards of their unwinable hearts game: hustling hard and with pride. Oberlin men's soccer pride, which has blossomed like a spring scarlet rose with Head Coach Blake New at the helm, runs deep in everyone who is associated with the team.

The Yeomen missed reaching "[What was] unthinkable a couple years ago," senior goalkeeper Caleb Stokes said. Their "unthinkable" goal Stokes refers to is making the conference tournament, an opportunity missed, by one overtime goal.

"We had just reached our potential as a team," New said. "And things just didn't go our way [in the Wooster game]". The disappointment of coming so close to the goal without attaining it was no fun thing, but it is much better than if the team was content with their result.

"I'm proud that in my time at Oberlin, I earned the chance to feel the disappointment of this season," Stokes said, saying that the Yeomen's standards and expectations of their level of play have increased tremendously in the last couple years.

And so has the Yeomen's schedule. "We had absolutely no cupcake games this year," coach New said. Their record was just one game worse than last year. One of the Yeoman wins this year came against Kenyon, a team Oberlin has defeated the last two years.

"We were definitely competitive in a very tough division," senior defender John Nishan said.

Having "excellent talent coming back," according to senior defender Ian Maher, the Yeomen will have an even better team.

It is a young team coming back, but one that is capable of "attaining some of the goals we had the chance to set for the first time this year," Stokes said.

The hard-nosed, goal-attacking style of play of senior Sam Hopkins rubbed off on junior Alex Maly, who will lead the Yeomen offense next year along with first-years Nick DiSanza and Jesse Kipp.

The maturity and leadership of senior Stokes will be missed, and the defensive backfield will take a major blow with the losses of Maher and Nishan.

The Yeomen ended their year on a positive note. Stokes made another great leaping save near the end of the game to close out his career. Hopkins took the ball to the middle of the field and attacked the goal like he's done all year. Nishan played solid defense and got the ball upfield to his offensive teammates for his last hurrah. Maher played a wonderful game of dogging the opposing forwards into turnovers and out-hustling the opposing midfielders for possesion. Oberlin disposed of La Roche College 2 - 0.

The impressions the seniors made on the soccer team and on Oberlin as a whole will not be forgotten. They won't forget a moment of it either. "I've had more fun playing soccer here at Oberlin than anything else I've done in my life," Maher said.

"This soccer program has given me memories which I will cherish deep within the bosom of my heart forever and ever," Nishan said.