While you were enjoying your mom’s homemade soup or visiting friends in New York City, the men’s soccer team was busy extending their unbeaten streak to six games. In games quite reminiscent of one another, the team came back from second-half deficits twice to earn ties against Bates College, a NESCAC opponent, and Western Connecticut State University (WCSU).
On Saturday, with grass fields all over New England unplayable due to flooding conditions, Wesleyan played a “home” game versus Bates at Connecticut College, which sports an artificial turf field.
The hero of this game was more known for keeping balls away from the net than scoring goals. Tired of living in defensive obscurity, Justin Mello ’08 knotted the game at one goal apiece early in the second, and it was his throw-in that led to the game-tying goal one minute after Bates had regained the lead.
“BSmitty [Brandon Smith ’08] was getting too much attention, I wanted some,” Mello said. “So I said, ‘Hey, I’ll just score a goal and get an assist.’ And Bam-I’m famous.”
Mello’s first career goal came from a rip that blew by Bates goalkeeper Aaron Schleicher.
Matt Gnall ’08 made five saves on seven shots to preserve the 2-2 tie.
Though the team came out sluggish in the first half, the Cardinals, who out-shot Bates 9-4 in the period, dominated the second half. After the tie, Bates (7-2-2, 3-2-2 NESCAC) and Wesleyan (6-2-1, 3-2-1 NESCAC) came out tied for tenth in New England, according to NSCAA.com rankings.
Tuesday’s game at Western Connecticut saw an identical result in a similar game. This time, Wesleyan fell behind 2-0 before coming back with a strong second half to earn another 2-2 tie.
“In both games we waited a little too long to get going and play our tempo, we didn’t really play with fire early on,” said Jared Ashe ’07. “But the last 30 minutes against both Bates and West Conn was some of the best soccer we played all year.”
After the first half, play turned choppy. There were five yellow cards issued in the second half and overtime, including three to Wesleyan. But it was Wesleyan that took advantage and shifted momentum in their favor. Peter Glidden ’07 had another fine game in the midfield, contributing four shots, yet it was Smith who stole the show.
In the 69th minute, Smith headed a cross from Morgan Owen ’07 past the keeper to bring Wesleyan within one goal of victory. Then, with the Cardinals on the doorstep, Smith netted his second goal of the game off a pass from Ashe with 2:31 left to play in regulation. Smith, who leads the team with six goals on the season, has scored five goals against WCSU in his Wesleyan career after tallying a hat trick last year.
Ashe, who has been playing defense since the injury of Chris Keeler ’07, was pushed up to forward for the final minutes of the game in hopes of forcing an overtime period. The move paid off.
“Hooter [Glidden] played a ball up the line and I was able to get by my defender and cut towards the box,” Ashe said. “Brandon did a nice job to get to the near post and I just ripped a cross and he redirected it in.”
While it was disappointing to have tied two winnable games, the Cardinals were glad to bounce back after being down on both occasions.
“On the whole it was a collaborative effort, and the team showed a lot of character coming back from a two goal deficit against West Conn,” Mello said.
Next up, Wesleyan takes on Amherst College away at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The Lord Jeffs are 7-3-2 overall and 4-2-1 in the NESCAC.
“We didn’t play very well at points but avoided losses which is big for us,” said Glidden. “To make the tourney we probably have to win the rest of are regular season games and go deep into the NESCAC tourney.”
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