By Esteban Bachelet
Smiling from ear to ear, President Sean Decatur walked onto the field to congratulate the men’s soccer team after watching the last 20 minutes of a tightly contested match. Players shook hands with the president and basked in the joys of a winning streak ﾖ now at five games ﾖ after defeating the College of Mount St. Joseph last Saturday 6-0 and Capital University 3-0 Tuesday, Sept. 24 at Mavec Field, pushing the Lords’ overall record to 7-2-0.
This is the Lords’ longest winning streak since the 2010 team went undefeated in seven games. The Lords have outscored their opponents 18-2 during this stretch. “We come into every game thinking we are going to dominate. We have to,” Cameron Scott ’15 said. “Last year we came in and we were a little hesitant.”
The Lords started fast against the Lions. Jordan Glassman ’17 scored two goals within the first 17 minutes, the first of which came only four minutes from the opening whistle. Josh Lee ’17 scored his third goal of the season in the 20th minute. Alistair Flynn ’14 scored twice, and leading-scorer Tony Amolo ’17 rounded out the scoring at 6-0 with a quarter of the game yet to play. The rest was just a formality.
The Lords faced a tougher match against Capital University. The first half featured a stalemate in the midfield with neither team able to break through.
“We were feeling our way, working out their system and our system,” Assistant Coach Darren Moore said.
Sam Justice ’15 kept the defense together, tackling well and playing with confidence against a team that showed flashes of promise. For every attack created by Capital’s Crusaders, the Lords returned with greater vengeance.
“It took us awhile to get the goal, but with the pressure we were putting on [them], we knew it was going to come,” Moore said.
Glassman once again ignited the offense, collecting the ball off a cross and calmly smashing it low into the net with 35 minutes to play. After brilliant saves from both ends, Glassman got in behind the defense in the 80th minute, extending the lead off a low cross from Flynn. Aaron Salm ’17 added a penalty late in the game to end it 3-0.
“It’s a great team performance. Everything worked out. ﾅ Fought hard, went into every ball,” Moore said.
The Lords will take on their first conference opponent when they travel to Indiana to face DePauw University on Saturday. “Every game is a tough game,” Moore said. “We have a really tough schedule. We’re taking each game as it comes. Tomorrow we’ll sit down and look at how they play and how we play.”
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