The Kenyon men’s soccer team (14-0-1) traveled to face off against Hiram College on a dark Saturday evening where they dispatched the Terriers 2-0. This win extended the Owls’ unbeaten streak of NCAC regular season games — which began in 2016 — to 50 in a row.

Kenyon immediately started off on the front foot, as it has done many times this season, needing fewer than two minutes to open the scoring  From a throw-in at their own half, the Owls calmly passed the ball around the backline before Aidan Burns ’24 found Max Thesing ’24 on the left flank. Thesing played a ball over the top, which Sebastian Gaese ’23 controlled at the edge of the box. Gaese, in turn, laid the ball off to midfielder Mac Nardiello-Smith ’23, who ran unmarked and smashed his shot past the helpless goalkeeper to make it 1-0. 

The Owls continued to control the game, but, despite taking 15 shots in the first half and forcing four saves, could not find the back of the net again until the second half. Kenyon was energetic out of the gate once more, and this time the Owls needed just over three minutes to double their lead. The Owls capitalized on their offensive pressure high up the pitch, when the ball fell to Thesing 20 yards out from the goal. Using his favored left foot, Thesing looped his pinpoint cross to the back right post, where a wide open Scott Upton ’23 headed the ball across goal and into the bottom left corner to make it 2-0. The Owls closed out the game comfortably, with the Terriers failing to record a shot on target in the second half, making it an easy day at the office for Kenyon keeper Jack Pedreschi ’25. 

With only one game left in the regular season, the Kenyon men’s soccer team knows their job isn’t done, and they are not slowing down. “We always make sure we come out with intensity and put the opposing team on the back foot as soon as the ball is kicked,” Upton wrote in an email to the Collegian. He now has eight goals and two assists this season and hopes that the team will continue to be clinical in front of goal in upcoming important games. “Scoring goals is a team effort and I hope that we can continue to attack at will and continue to provide each other with quality scoring opportunities,” he said.

The Owls’ last regular-season game, the annual Senior Day match, will be against Wittenberg University at Mavec Field on Oct. 29 at 3:30 p.m. If they win, Kenyon will secure their seventh straight NCAC regular-season title and will enter the NCAC tournament undefeated with home field advantage throughout, beginning Nov. 2.