They won the game that really mattered. After the men’s soccer team dropped a tight game on Saturday to Bowdoin to close out their regular season, they began their postseason with a huge win the very next day on that very same field against the very same team.
On Saturday, such a fate did not seem likely. The Cardinals could not seem to get anything going offensively in the first half. They were out-shot 8-3 in the half, and it took three unbelievable saves from keeper Matt Gnall ’08 to keep them in the game.
One-goal losses are always hard to swallow, but they are particularly painful when your team fails to capitalize on a wonderful opportunity. In the second half, with a revamped lineup, Wesleyan began to put heavy pressure on the Bowdoin defense. Matt Nevin ’09 sent Co-captain Noah Isaacs ’06 streaking down the left side in an odd-man rush. He found Mike Walker ’08 just outside the six, but he struck the volley just over the crossbar.
With less than ten minutes to play, Bowdoin finally drew blood when Simon Parsons put a Nick Figueiredo cross into the top corner, giving the Polar Bears the 1-0 lead for good. The loss put the Cardinals in the seventh seed in the playoffs, while Bowdoin secured the second slot.
The next day was a Sunday, but not a day of rest for either team. The sun was out and the temperature pushed into the fifties, but none of that really mattered. The Cardinals had one thing on their mind: revenge.
The game started intense and only got more so. The Cardinals struck first: in the 13th minute, co-captain Kevin Lohela ’06 scored his first goal of the year, putting Wesleyan up 1-0. The goal ended an agonizingly long 324-minute scoreless spell for the Cards.
“We are a great post-season team because we have more depth than any team in the conference,” Lohela said. “We can play two games in a weekend and be fine because our level of play never drops, regardless of who’s on the field.”
The Cardinals proved their captain right with the way they bounced back from a potentially demoralizing loss to crush a very good opponent. The team’s depth also showed up in the scorebooks.
With less than a minute to play in the first half, Ross Pemmerl ’08 got a rebound in the box and put it away for the first goal of his college career. Not only was it the game-winner, but it took the wind out of the Polar Bears’ sails.
“The team was amped for the game and we came out firing, scoring four goals before they had a chance to net one in the final minutes of the game,” Pemmerl said. “We played a great team game and everybody rose to the occasion.”
In the second half Wesleyan continued to pour it on with goals from Josh Stephens ’07 and Nevin. Stephens’ rifle from about twenty-five yards out netted him his first goal of the season. Nevin’s fifth goal on the year puts him tied for second on the team with Morgan Owen ’07. Both trail Brandon Smith ’08.
With Bowdoin increasing the pressure up top, Wesleyan got several chances on counterattacks. Morgan Owen ’07 and Julian Canzoneri ’07 both had breakaways but were unable to capitalize. With the offense clicking on all cylinders, however, it did not matter for the visiting Cards. Gnall lost the shutout with about ten minutes left to play, making it 4-1, but the game was never in question. The Cardinals knew they were headed for the NESCAC final four.
“It was an unreal win—we made a really good team look really bad,” said Peter Glidden ’07. “They put us in the girls’ locker room and we took that as a sign of disrespect and returned the favor on the scoreboard. That’s just karma.”
Wesleyan kept the pressure up the entire game, putting twelve shots on goal to the Bears’ nine. Bowdoin did not lack for chances, however, getting five corner kicks in the game. Gnall did a spectacular job in keeping them out of the goal for the first eighty minutes.
The importance of the team’s depth was not limited to spreading the scoring. In playing 180 minutes of soccer in two days, every player fatigues. Almost everyone on the roster played at some point this weekend and had something to do with the outcome on Sunday.
“We also got amazing contributions from guys like Ozzie ‘Ur boy’ Parente [’09] and Ali ‘Usher’ Levey [’09],” said Jared Ashe ’07. “And having two outside backs both being from Rehoboth, Mass., (Justin Mello and Pemmerl) really helps our team chemistry.”
With the win, Wesleyan advances to the semi-finals, in which they will travel to face Williams on Saturday in a repeat showdown of the Little Three rivals. Williams has sent Wesleyan home from the NESCAC playoffs the last three years, including last year, a close-fought 1-0 loss. The last time Wesleyan beat Williams was in 1992, back when Terry Jackson was head coach and this year’s stellar frosh players were in kindergarten.
Before the Final Four, Wesleyan has a regular season match Wednesday against Vassar, at home at 3:30 p.m.
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