NOLAN POTTS ‘DOAH STAFF WRITER
Legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi, once said, “It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a win- ner.” Lombardi’s quote could apply directly to the S.U. men’s soccer team in 2013 because things did
not go as planned for the squad the entire season. In 18 games a year ago, the team scored a total of seven goals for an average of 0.4 goals
per game. On top of that, opponents averaged 3.47 goals per game. The combination of a team averaging less than a goal per game and giving up over three goals per game was not a recipe for success, and it showed, as the team did not register a single win.
Heading into the 2014 cam- paign, the team was confident they would play much better than in 2013 because last year was as bad as you could get. Last year may have been used as a learning tool for the team, because they started off this season winning two of their first three games, and through nine games the team has three wins. It is not where they want to be in terms of overall record, but when you think about how tough 2013 was for the team it is certainly a huge step in the right direction. In nine games the squad has registered 11 goals, four more than they scored in all 18 games last year.
Freshman Brian Maye leads the way offensively for the Hornets with three goals and is followed by fellow freshman Jake Kaiser, sophomore Nate Long and junior Eduardo Santiago who have all tallied two goals. Freshman Kevin Kokolis
and sophomore Loudon Phillips have also both scored one goal
each for S.U. this season. In terms of goalkeeping, Matthew Poell has registered 564 of the 810 possible minutes so far and is averaging 2.07 goals per game with 25 saves. He also recorded his first career shutout on Aug. 30 in a 3-0 win against Penn State Brandywine.
The team has nine regular season games left to play, and four of them will take place at Sprint Field at Shentel Stadium. Their next home game is Oct. 11 against Virginia Wesleyan. The remaining games the Hornets will host are Oct. 15 versus Washington & Lee, Oct. 25 against Hampden-Sydney and the home finale is Oct. 29 as they welcome in Randolph-Macon. Come out and support your men’s soccer team as they look to keep adding on wins and move forward in the right direction.
Categories: Home
The Buzz 