SCOTLAND YARD NEWS: Season Wrap-Up
The Season in Review
Written By: Assistant Coach Jason Stanley
Wanting to continue to build on what we had started last year with this program, I had high expectations about the direction we were heading in. With the addition of several new key players and a core of more experienced returnees that had now spent a year in our system, we were looking to translate the rebuilding process into a season of successful results.
We got right down to business in mid-August with three-a-day trainings and immediately started looking at who was going to step up and fill important roles for us this season. As anyone who has played or coached soccer knows, even with three-a-days, the preseason never provides enough time to prepare. But, we had the benefit of unseasonably cool weather, a little bit of rain, and very few injuries allowing us to make the most of the precious week and a half that we had together before our first match. Freshmen Andrew Waligorski and Chad Erickson came into camp with the only major injuries, but were training at full strength by the end of preseason.
We had planned for a tough first few weeks to the season scheduling two Division II opponents, two nationally ranked teams from Ohio, and six of our first eight games on the road. This certainly wasn’t going to make things easy on us, but we felt it was the perfect way to prepare for the all-important MIAA conference schedule. We suffered opening losses to two very physical D-II opponents in Saginaw Valley State and Northwood, but the losses toughened us up and began to prepare us for more compatible Division III opponents. We had said after the games that we wouldn’t see two more physical opponents throughout the year, and as the season wore on that proved to be exactly right.
We traveled down to Delaware, Ohio the following weekend to take on Ohio Wesleyan and Capital Universities who were ranked as high as 13th and 14th in the nation, respectively. The trip took an unexpected turn as inclement weather forced us to adjust our travel plans and stay another evening to play Ohio Wesleyan, but we were able to get two games in against some of the best teams in the Midwest region providing some valuable experience for our players.
After games against nearby Rochester College (1-1 T) and Holy Cross College (5-2 W) out of South Bend, Indiana, we opened the MIAA conference schedule at home against Adrian. We benefited from a scoring explosion, tallying six goals, including two goals and an assist from First Team All-MIAA selection Mark Daisy, en route to a 6-1 victory in our first league game.
After battling Tri-State to a scoreless draw in Angola, Indiana over the weekend, we hit a tough string of late September losses to what would prove to be three of the top four teams in the conference. We were able to rebound though in early October, with an overtime win at last year’s MIAA conference champion, Albion, courtesy of a 20-yard strike from Dan Laatz in the first overtime period. We unfortunately followed that huge win with a very disappointing loss to Adrian on the road which I think showed us that on any given day, any team in this conference is capable of beating another. We furthered that idea in a positive way the following week with a return win against Tri-State, avenging an early season tie against a team we knew we should have beaten on the road.
We endured another tough series of losses the following two weeks against the likes of Kalamazoo, Calvin, Olivet, and Hope, but were able to finish the season on a high note at home beating Albion again in the return leg, 1-0, sending our seniors off with a victory in their final game at Scotland Yard.
We finished the season with an overall record of 5-13-2, (4-9-1 in the MIAA) improving on last year’s record of 3-14-1, (2-12-0 in the MIAA). We finished the year in 6th place in the final MIAA standings jumping two spots from our 8th place finish last year and complementing that finish with two consecutive victories over 4th place finisher and the previous season’s conference champion, Albion College.
You always hear from coaches and players that our record of wins and losses didn’t reflect the quality of our play or how good our team really was, and I think it’s always difficult to quantify how accurate those statements really are. But in a year in which we added two Division II scholarship programs and two teams ranked in the top 25 for most of the year to our non-conference schedule, I think we might have had an argument. Over half of our losses were by two goals or less and, at times, we had up to 9 freshmen playing on the field together for us.
We’re young and we’re learning each and every day at each and every training, and I couldn’t think of a better situation to be in as a coach or as a player. We’re still very much building toward where we want to go with this program, and the opportunity is still there for young players to step into huge roles for this team and be a major part of our future success. We’re gaining experience every time we step out onto the field, and I really think we’re starting to become a team that nobody really wants to play, because we fight hard in every minute of every game, and we truly have the potential to play with and beat anyone.
The year was a success in my mind, and I hope that everyone else on the team and associated with the program feels the same way. It was a privilege to be a part of the program for a second year, and I am already looking forward to where this team is heading next year.
Posted: Mon, November 19th, 2007 at 4:18PM
