Men’s Soccer reMaines in Control

On Sept. 29 and 30, the men’s soccer team headed to Maine for a doubleheader against rival Colby College on Saturday, and then with University of Maine Farmington on Sunday. Against Colby, the Panthers struck first on a penalty by Daniel O’Grady ’19 in the 22nd minute. The rest of the half remained scoreless and the Panthers headed into the locker room holding onto a slim lead. In the 56th minute, Colby found the back of the net, equalizing the score. Lucas Pereira assisted Cam Cloude as the Mules managed to even the score at 1.

At the end of 90 minutes, the match remained tied and the teams headed into overtime. Middlebury was the dominant team throughout, outshooting Colby 16-8, and earning 13 corners as opposed to the Mules’ lone two. Colby’s goalkeeper was busy in the net, making nine saves while Midd’s Matt Hyer ’21 only made three. Midd kept pressing for the go ahead goal and they almost found it. As Midfielder Michael O’Herron ’19 recalls, the Panthers really deserved the win, except a missed call cost them a penalty. 

“We had one play where Donski (Brandon Reid ’21) had a one on one with the keeper and he touched it around the keeper and got tripped, the ref fully missed the call.” 

Regardless of the pressure from Middlebury, Colby wasn’t going to drop the game just yet. Deep in the second half, they had a close chance, but the ball hit the crossbar. Had the shot been a few inches lower, the Mules would have stolen 3 points from the Panthers. Middlebury and Colby would eventually tie, 1-1. Raffi Barsamian ’21 noted “It’s one of those games were the better team didn’t end up coming out on top.”

Moving on from the disappointment, the Panthers competed in a non-conference matchup with U-Maine Farmington on the following day. The Panthers were a level above their opponents from the start. Brandon Reid ’21, one of the Panthers most prolific goal scorers, tallied on a breakaway assisted by Drew Goulart ’20 in the 10th minute. Goulart was in a giving mood; in the 21st minute, Goulart assisted Ben Potter ’20, who scored on a header. In the 38th minute, Shams Mohajerani ’20 gave the Panthers a 3-0 cushion. The Panthers went up 4-0 just before the half when a player from UMaine Farmington scored on his own goal. With a four goal lead heading into the second half, the Panthers distributed playing time for every single member of the team. 

Michael O’Herron ’19 noted that these fresh faces stood up to the challenge. “Everyone on the team played so it was nice to get the freshman out there,” said O’Herron. “It was a tough surface, and not an easy place to play, so it was nice to see them play well.” The Panthers rounded out the goal fest by finding the back of the net two more times. Henry Wilhelm ‘20 and Brendan Berry  ’22 scored in the 50th and 81st minutes respectively. The final score was 6-0 in favor of the Panthers.

Coming up this weekend the Panthers face their biggest test of the season yet: a home matchup against third-ranked Tufts. “Tufts is the team to beat in the NESCAC” said Kyle Moffat ’19. “You get that honor from winning two national titles in four years.” 

O’Herron also noted that Tufts brings a high level of quality to their game in contrast to the typically physical NESCAC style. 

“They play a possession oriented, ball on the ground style, they are high quality and technically very sound,” O’Herron said.  

The Panthers will look to disrupt that style, but they also think they can play along with the style of the Tufts team when necessary. 

“It will be important to affect their style given that one of our strengths is the physicality of our game,” O’Herron said. “That being said, we have some really technical players who can match that style as well.”

The match this weekend should be an exciting one. Bring your family out and show your Panther Pride!