Goshen, IN — On Oct. 7 of last season, the Goshen College men’s soccer team took just 14 players to Rochester College for a non-league match sandwiched between tilts with Mid-Central College foes Grace College and Huntington (then) College. Resting a number of its regulars, Goshen head coach Tavi Mounsithiraj’s club could only come away with a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation at Rochester Hills. The Warriors’ coaching staff pleaded with Mousnithiraj for overtimes to be played, but Goshen’s leader wanted nothing to do with it.

“Having only three subs, I was pleased with the result on the road,” Mounsithiraj said following that match.

Fast-forward to this Thursday at the Goshen College Soccer Complex, and overtime was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

Playing with a renowned sense of urgency and intensity, Goshen dismantled, beat up and then dismantled Rochester even more, winning by a 10-1 score over last season’s United Small College Athletic Association’s national runner-up program. The margin of victory was the largest since Mounsithiraj took over the program in the fall of 2001, while freshman Cody Felton became the first Leafs’ player to score four goals in one match since the 1999 season.

“Before the kick off I told our guys that we needed to go out there and be ready to play,” Mounsithiraj said after the drubbing. “Oh, how the team responded.”

Indicative of how the game was played, the final score gave Goshen (9-1-1, 2-1) its largest point total in consecutive matches since the Mounsithiraj era began, as the team defeated Grace Bible College by a 6-0 score just five days earlier (click here for article). Thursday against the Warriors, the Leafs started strong and ended in the same fashion, scoring five goals in each half while allowing one communication flaw on the defensive end to ruin the team’s chance at its sixth shutout of the season.

“Our guys wanted the shutout, but it was not to be,” Mounsithiraj said. “After we got a lead, we tried to think about preparing for our upcoming MCC matches. We’ve got five left and every single one of them is important, so we just tried to play solid soccer throughout.”

Felton was by far the brightest point on the day, notching a pair of scores in each half. He became the first player since Sam Richardson to score four goals in a single match for the Goshen program, just two off top honors in the program record books (Don Hess and Fred Driver each scored six goals in a single match in 1972 and 1974, respectively).

“Cody was incredible out there today,” Mounsithiraj said. “He never stops working on the field. He might have scored more, had I not taken him out of the match and had him take it easy after his fourth. He is really fun to watch.”

Junior Ashe Abebe and sophomore Tony Janzen were right on Felton’s heels in the scoring onslaught, each knocking in a pair of scores. Junior Rueben Yoder added a tally as did freshman Peter Miller, the second score of his young career.

“Overall I was happy with the result today, but we still have a lot of work to do if we are going to do as well as we’d like in our conference,” Mounsithiraj said. “We’ll get back to the training ground tomorrow.”

Goshen will return to league play — for the remainder of its regular season — beginning Saturday, when the team hosts Grace College. Match time is set to begin at 7 p.m.