(Box Score) North Manchester, IN — Don’t look now, but the Goshen College men’s soccer team appears to be getting it together.
After starting with a pre-season ranking of 16th in the country, Goshen (3-3-2, 0-0) dropped three of its first four games, surrendering a total of seven goals in that span. Since then, however, the Leafs have won three of four and allowed just one goal, culminating with a 2-0 win at Manchester College Tuesday afternoon.
As has been stated before on this site, the season is shaping up eerily similar to the program’s 2006 campaign — a year that ended with a Mid-Central Conference Co-Championship and the program’s first trip to the NAIA National Championships since 1976.
With this year’s first MCC match still days away, Leafs’ head coach Tavi Mounsithiraj is refusing to talk about long-term possibilities, instead focusing on the day-to-day betterment of his team.
“I thought we came out ready to play today,” Mounsithiraj said following Tuesday’s win. “I told our guys that Manchester was having a good year and this should be a good task for us. We stayed focused and played good soccer.”
With the host Spartans posting a 5-1 record entering the match, Goshen successfully handled both the host team and warm conditions. With temperatures reaching nearly 90 degrees during the 4 p.m. match, Mounsithiraj used 18 players to eventually wear down Manchester’s efforts.
“Right from the opening whistle I thought we were the better side on the day, and I thought as the match wore on that became more apparent,” Mounsithiraj said. “We rotated about 18 guys for the match just to wear MC down. The subs did a great job of coming in and giving us some relief.”
After out-shooting Manchester by a 14 to four count in the first half, the Spartans somehow managed to keep the tally scoreless. A constant Goshen attack would finally yield results in the second half, however, as sophomore Luke Woodworth charted his first score as a Maple Leaf. Woodworth, who took a direct kick just outside the 18-yard box at the game’s 73rd-minute mark, was able to bend a shot around a five-man Manchester wall that snuck into the upper right hand corner of the net.
“There was little Manchester could do but applaud that shot,” Mounsithiraj said. “With a 1-0 lead, I implored our defensive team to step up, and they did. We were able to deny everything that MC threw our way.”
That, as it turned out, was not much. Manchester attempted just five shots in the second half of play, while Goshen equaled its first-half mark of 14. Senior Tony Janzen added an insurance goal at the 86th-minute mark, picking up a loose ball and out dribbling several defenders for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
“(Sophomore) Kyle Stiffney, (senior) Benji Graber, (junior) Rusty Emery and (senior) Matt Yoder all deserve credit for our shut out today,” Mounsithiraj said. “(Freshman) Trent Moody made five saves in goal, and continues to give us good minutes back there.”
Mounsithiraj now turns his attention toward Marian College, as the Leafs will travel to Indianapolis Saturday afternoon to open the MCC portion of its schedule with the Knights. Mounsithiraj is 1-3-3 against Marian in his previous six years at the helm of the Goshen program. Match time is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.
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Sophomore Luke Woodworth