The Cardinals survived a rare scare on Saturday, pulling out a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Connecticut College Camels in the last ten minutes. They trailed at the half 1-0, and for a while it seemed as though their perfect season might have its first blemish.
“This was the first time yet this year that I was worried about us losing,” said tri-captain Jared Ashe ’07. “We were deflated in the first half and couldn’t get anything going.”
Conn. College’s Kyle Neidhart began the game’s scoring with his first goal of the season in the 19th minute on an assist from Greg Genco. Despite support from the hometown fans, Wesleyan’s energy was low and its offensive attacks were stymied time and time again.
The Cards put six shots on the board in the first half, none of which made it past Camels goalie Ted Lane. The Camels could only get two shots on goal in the first half, but one got in, which was all that mattered.
Wesleyan had an impressive 16-4 advantage in shots on goal in this game, ten of those coming from the rejuvenated squad that took the field in the second half. Fifteen minutes after the break, Matt Nevin ’09 scored his team-leading fifth goal of the year on an assist by Alan Ashenfelter ’09. This game-tying score made Nevin third in the NESCAC for goals scored.
The score remained tied at one until a strange play with just seven minutes left gave Wesleyan the lead that it wouldn’t relinquish. The Cards earned a throw-in deep in Camel territory, to be taken by Ross Pemmerl ’07. Pemmerl heaved the ball towards Conn. College’s goal, over the head of Ashe, who had attempted to direct the ball in the goal.
The rules say that a goal can’t be scored on a throw-in if the ball is not touched beforehand, and it looked as though it wouldn’t be counted until a desperate Camel defender, fearing that a Cardinal attacker would score on the play, handled the ball intentionally and it inadvertently found the back of the net.
Had the play not resulted in a goal, the referee would have likely ejected the defender and awarded Wesleyan a penalty kick.
“That’s a play that we practice all the time. Ross throws it long, and I try to head it towards one of our players to score. It didn’t happen how we drew it up, but you can’t argue with the result,” Ashe said about the game-winning goal.
The win gave Wesleyan a 7-0 record (4-0 in NESCAC play). The Cards are joined at the top of the NESCAC standings with Williams, which is also 7-0.
On Tuesday they will go up against Wheaton College at home in hopes of tying the mark for the best start ever for a Wesleyan men’s soccer team.
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