(Sept. 8 Box Score) (Sept. 9 Box Score)
Angola, IN — It may have taken longer than what most were expecting, but the Goshen College men’s soccer team finally recorded a win in the 2007 season this weekend, knocking off Heidelberg College 1-0 in second-round play at Tri-State University’s Ketner Classic Sunday afternoon.
The win came after a tie and three consecutive losses for Goshen (1-3-1, 0-0), who suffered a 3-2 loss to Otterbein College on Saturday afternoon to open play in the classic.
While in no way promising, Goshen’s start to the season brings eerily pensive similarities to last season’s outset, where the Leafs lost three straight before picking up a win. That squad went on to capture an NAIA Region VIII Championship, a Mid-Central Conference Co-Championship and participated in the NAIA National Championships — a first for the program since the 1977 season.
Goshen head coach Tavi Mounsithiraj is hearing none of the comparison-speak, however.
“We won, and that’s that,” Mounsithiraj said of his team’s Sunday victory. “We’re a totally different team than last year, a totally different makeup. That is obvious. We finally were able to put together 90 minutes of good soccer. That’s all that we’re going to talk about right now.”
With last season’s team providing proof that a less-than-stellar start to a season can yield outstanding results, Mounsithiraj was quick to remind that it is not necessarily an accurate precursor to such success, either.
“The bottom line is that we have given up too many goals for us to have a good chance to win,” he said. “(Sunday) was a better example of what we’re trying to do. We have to get back to playing better defense.”
That sentiment came on the heels of Saturday’s loss to Otterbein, where Goshen gave up a season-high three scores in dropping a match in which the team held a 2-1 lead. Things started off briskly for the Leafs, as senior Tony Janzen was taken down inside the box just six minutes into play, setting up Goshen’s first penalty-kick situation of the year. Junior Rusty Emery blasted the ball into the back of the net for his first score of the season, giving the Leafs an early 1-0 advantage.
Otterbein responded at the 17th minute mark, however, using a swift counter attack to catch Mounsithiraj’s squad off guard. Janzen was quick to put Goshen back on top at the game’s 24th-minute mark, out muscling a Cardinals’ defender and scoring his second goal of the season in a one-on-one opportunity.
With a 2-1 lead in hand, Goshen did the near-unthinkable, giving up a pair of scores in the second period — Otterbein’s goals came at the 62nd- and 73rd-minute marks — finding a way to lose a game in which they had total control.
“It just seemed like nothing would go our way (in the second half),” Mounsithiraj said. “I thought we could have done a much better job defending both goals. We don’t have any quit in us, though, and that was good to see. Even being down 2-3, the guys still played hard looking for the equalizer. The best chance came when Tony hit a ball that hit the cross bar and bounced away as the clock ticked down to zero. With two goals, we could have won this match. We just need to cut down on some of our mistakes in the back.”
Fast-forward to Sunday afternoon against Heidelberg, and Mounsithiraj made the most of his promise. With several line-up changes — freshman Trent Moody made his first career start in goal for the Leafs — Goshen pitched its first shut-out of the season. Moody finished with eight saves on the day, while the Leafs were able to use a corner kick midway through the first half to decide the outcome. Sophomore Luke Woodworth sent a beautiful cross into the box at the game’s 24th-minute mark, as classmate Nick Good was there for the easy tap in.
With a 1-0 lead in hand, Goshen’s defensive unit of Moody, Emery, sophomores David Shenk, Jordan Delp and Kyle Stiffney were able to hold off every Heidelberg push. The Fighting Student Princes were able to reel off 15 total shots and eight shots on goal for the match. Goshen recorded 17 and seven.
“Trent Moody came up with some big saves and our defensive unit really stepped up,” Mounsithiraj said. “This was Moody’s first start of the year and I was quite pleased with how hard the rest of the team worked in the back. We still have a lot of work to do to get ourselves ready for conference play, but this was a better result.”
Otterbein finished 2-0 at the weekend classic, defeating Tri-State by a 2-1 score on Sunday. Heidelberg beat the hosts by the same 2-1 score in Saturday’s other action.
Goshen, meanwhile, will return to the Goshen College Soccer Complex for its next outing, hosting Urbana University on Thursday evening. That match will be the second leg of a men’s-women’s double-header, with the women’s game slated to begin at 6 p.m. The men’s game will occur immediately at that contest’s conclusion, with an approximate start time set for 8 p.m.
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Junior Rusty Emery