After a disappointing start to its season, the men’s soccer team is looking to rebound from last Friday’s loss to Lehigh as it travels to Syracuse for a bout against the Orange tonight. The second game of the Red’s young season, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., is as important to the team as their opener.
Although the team was unable to capitalize on an overall strong performance against Lehigh, the loss, according to junior captain Brian Scruton, was chock full of positives.
“I think after the game on Friday all the guys were positive, even though we lost,” Scruton said. “There was a big difference in the post-game attitude after Lehigh [compared to] last year. It was a tough loss because we all played so well, but we are all still supporting each other and are ready for Syracuse because they are solid. [The team] knows [it] can play with them.”
In particular, freshman goalie Steve Lesser was impressive, making seven saves on eight Lehigh shot attempts – and the rest of the team took notice of his performance.
“I thought Steve had a phenomenal game,” Scruton said. “It’s always tough to be a freshman and to be expected to play big in the first game, but I thought Steve stepped up nicely and performed real well for us. I’m sure he’ll keep up the solid play for the rest of the year, the team is real confident with him in the net.”
The Orange has had a promising start to their 2005 campaign, as it enters tonight boasting a perfect 2-0-0 record. The team’s two wins have come at the hands of Marist and Loyola – the Orange emerged victorious by a score of 1-0 in both matches. However, the Red is not focusing on the record of its opponent. Rather, the team is trying to execute its game plan the best it can, regardless of who is on the other side of the field.
“Going into a game, we don’t look at the record of the other team,” Scruton said. “Especially because last year, we didn’t have the best record but we knew we could compete with every team we faced.”
However, regardless of how the team prepares for tonight’s match-up, it is quite clear that the Red wants this game as badly as any other on the ’05 season schedule.
“We know this is a big game for our season,” Scruton said. “We want the win like [we do] all the other games, but because [the Orange] is a regional team, we take them [really] seriously. We play them every year, and because both [teams are] from upstate, there are some bragging rights that go along with the game itself. At this point, I’m getting pretty anxious about tomorrow – it’d be a great win for us.”
Archived article by Ben Kopelman
Sun Staff Writer