Last second goal leaves men's soccer second guessing

Author: Andrew Schlegel

After starting their season with four convincing wins, the men's soccer team had a tough time this week. In Wednesday's game at Colby-Sawyer, the team came out flat and had trouble finding the back of the net until late in the game. The Colby-Sawyer game was followed by a devastating loss to Wesleyan on Saturday.

Said co-captain David Lee '07, "The Colby-Sawyer game brought back some nightmares of last year's Norwich game where we played well, but could not score." After the tenth minute, the Panthers were down by one goal, but once they scored the Panthers kept on scoring. "It was a good wake-up call and our team responded splendidly," remarked the other co-captain Zach Toth '07.

As the game continued, the Panthers started to string together better runs, which culminated in an eight-goal onslaught. Casey Ftorek '08 added two goals to his team-leading seven goals and also dished out an assist. Nathaan Demers '08.5 and Baer Fisher '09 each had a goal and an assist. Vandy Shanholt '07, John Sales '07, David LaRocca '08 and Stephen Hart '10 also added solo goals, helping the Panthers to an 8-2 win.

The fifth game was a blowout for the Panthers and they looked very strong going into Saturday's game. Toth commented, "It was great to get the win and show how dangerous we are up top."

On Saturday, the Panthers hosted the defending NESCAC champion, Wesleyan. Said Lee, "we came out and, for some reason, just did not have the drive and desire that had carried us to 5-0 and a top 20 national ranking. We were flat, slow and hesitant all over the field." The team did come out lacking in the first 20 minutes, but as the first half progressed, the Panthers were able to control play by feeding crisp passes to the center-midfielders, Billy Brennan '07 and Alex Elias '08. Both players were able to control, turn and distribute the ball, which resulted in some unsuccessful scoring opportunities, but Wesleyan goalkeeper Matt Gnall was able to make some impressive saves.

In the second half, the momentum drastically shifted. Wesleyan started to control the center of the field, which enabled Wesleyan to mount strong attacks, forcing goalkeeper Toth to make three acrobatic saves in order to keep the game tied at zero.

Wesleyan's aggressive play and constant attacking did not quit. In the 76th minute, Wesleyan's Sam Griswold got a one-on-one and was able to find the back of the net with a shot to the lower left corner. Soon to follow, Fisher received his second yellow card for a foul that seemed to be out of frustration. Fisher's ejection resulted in the Panthers having to play a man down. At that point, it seemed that the Panthers had lost all momentum.

In the 84th minute, however, Ftorek responded with an authoritative header off of Shanholt's cross from the left corner. This tied the game, but with 44 seconds left, Wesleyan's Ross Pemmerl received an indirect kick off of a questionable foul and Jared Ashe knocked the ball into the lower left to score the game-winning goal.

As a result of the 2-1 end result, the men's team lost their first game of the season. Said Lee, "I feel like we came into the game thinking we were untouchable and that attitude showed on the field - we played like we were entitled to win the game just because it said 'Middlebury' on our uniform."

The Panthers certainly did not play as well as they had at the beginning the season. Lee added, "That was the first loss we have had to Wesleyan in 15 years and I really hope it is a wake-up call for our team."