Megan Zerrer
Sports Editor
The Fighting Scots men’s soccer team came out strong in their first home match of the season against Earlham College. The Scots took the lead against the Quakers when Manny Burton ’20 found Mouhamet Ndiaye ’18 open on the left flank. Ndiaye cut in toward the box and placed the ball in the goal’s far corner. Wooster’s strong defense kept Earlham away from the goal for the remainder of the first half.
Unfortunately for the Scots, the Quakers returned to the field with luck on their side. A 40-yard free kick from Earlham’s Ismail Lapp-Kamara ’18 turned into the Quaker’s first goal when the ball bounced untouched over Wooster goalkeeper Scot Stacho ’18 with Wooster’s defenders unable to clear the ball before it crossed the goal line.
Earlham scored their game-winning goal as Brett Marshall ’20 slid between a pair of Wooster defenders, slipping a shot under a diving Stacho to earn a one goal lead over the Scots. While the Scots had several opportunities to even the score, they had trouble getting shots in the net. The closest the men’s team came to evening the score came after Wooster earned a penalty kick. Austin Russell ’19 stepped up to take it, but his shot went just high of the goal frame as Earlham maintained their 2-1 lead.
Despite Earlham’s victory over Wooster, the Fighting Scots put up a tough fight, taking seven shots compared to Earlham’s nine. Stacho had four saves on the match. However, Wooster struggled with offsides calls, earning four compared to Earlham’s two.
In the past five seasons the Scots have won all of their games against Earlham, with goal totals staying under two. Unfortunately for the Scots, their five-season long victory over their longtime rivals is now broken.
When asked what the team plans to do differently in upcoming games after this loss to Earlham, Russell said, “mentally we need to better prepare for the second halves of games and make sure our intensity doesn’t drop so low.” Russell also added that an individual goal of his was to “not lose a second half for the rest of the season.”
Stacho echoed Russell’s statements, “I think that for future games we need to stay focused and tuned in to put together a full 90 minutes of the game. For the first half, we had the momentum with a 1-0 lead and weren’t under too much pressure from Earlham. If we can come out of halftime with the same energy and not take any mental breaks for the whole game, we’ll find success,” said Stacho.
The men’s soccer team will play again on Wednesday Sept. 21 after press time, hosting Capital University (5-1-0). Conference play will begin on Saturday Sept. 24 where the Scots will take the field at home again against Hiram College (2-2-1).
“The NCAC is one of the toughest DIII conferences in the nation for soccer, so we’ll have some strong competition coming up. The Fighting Scots have a lot to prove in this conference, and if we compete how we know we’re capable, we’ll be successful,” said Stacho.
When asked about the most challenging games coming up for the Scots, Russell said, “I think the most challenging game is going to be our first conference game at home Saturday because we will need to show the rest of the conference how good we are and that we are not a team to ignore.”