Men’s soccer returns to winning ways, blanks Amherst 1-0 at home

After conceding its first two goals of the season in last week’s stunning overtime loss at Colby, the Middlebury men’s soccer team was hungry for a victory. Coming into the game with a 7-1 overall record, 3-1 in conference, the Panthers still felt they had something to prove.

“Obviously there was some pressure to send a message to the rest of the league that we deserve our record and that the Colby game was in the past,” says defender Matt Martin ’12.5. After 90 hard-fought minutes in front of an energetic parents’ weekend crowd, the team celebrated its eighth shutout win of the season by downing NESCAC rival Amherst 1-0.

In the first half the Panthers were playing into the wind and Amherst controlled much of the play, outshooting Middlebury 10-1 through 45 minutes. Head Coach Dave Saward recognizes that the game was looking troublesome through much of the first frame.

“We were certainly hanging on in the first half, but I do think the wind had a huge influence on the game. That is not to take anything away from the way Amherst came at us. We had significant issues with their aerial attack.” Martin added that the lack of offense could have been because, “One of our focuses for the game was to play good team defense, especially on set plays where Amherst was particularly dangerous in the first half.”

Saward referred to the game as a “tale of two halves,” and with the wind at its back the team outshout the Lord Jeffs 6-3 in the second half and scored at the 78-minute mark on a Martin Drolet ’12 goal off a rebound from a shot taken by Carson Cornbrooks ’11.

“Leading up to when Marty scored it really felt like something had to be coming,” says Martin. “Tyler Macnee ‘12 was destroying their defense and Cornbrooks had a couple really dangerous crosses. It just felt like it was only a matter of time and fortunately Marty [Drolet] came up with a really big goal when it counted.”

As the have time and time before this season, the defense got the job done and goalie Tim Cahill ’12 recorded his sixth shutout of the season.

“Timmy has been great all season as you can obviously tell by the stats,” says Martin. “The last couple minutes of each half are always key, and Timmy had a big save right before halftime against Amherst that really sent a message.”

“I have great faith in how we defend,” added Saward. “Harrison Watkins ’11 is a terrific organizer of the back four, with Otis Pitney ’12, Cornbrooks and Robbie Redmond ’12 working tirelessly to break up any potential issues.”

The team has yet to give up a goal on its home turf this season, and much of this has to do with how the team, in the words of Saward and Martin, strives to take pride in its “resilient team defense.”

“You absolutely never want another team to be able to celebrate a goal on your own field,” says Martin. “Every game we’re looking for a shutout.”

The team plays its last out of conference game this weekend at Castleton State on Wednesday before travelling to Connecticut College to take on the 3-4-1 Camels.

“We have five matches to go and each one is vitally important,” says Saward. Now, second place in the NESCAC behind undefeated Williams, the 19th-ranked Panthers will need to take it one game at a time.