Protecting the Home Turf

September 13

What a difference three days can make. For as much as we struggled with our finishing and our composure against Mt. St. Mary’s, you could forgive a Vassar fan for thinking that our home opener today against Alfred (who we only beat by one goal last season) would be a close game. While I had seen a lot of positive things out of our team in practice this week, I did not expect to see the scoreline that we produced: 8-0, the most lopsided victory of my Vassar career.

Today’s game also continued an impressive streak we have- our last regular-season loss at home was October 25, 2006 (a shocking overtime defeat to 10-man New Paltz). That statistic will certainly be put to the test on Wednesday against Stevens Tech, one of the best teams in the country. Still, with 8 of our remaining 13 games in Poughkeepsie this season, it is a good sign that we have been so successful on our home turf.

Our whole team looked great today, especially at the offensive end, which has been one of our biggest question marks. Everything was clicking for us on the attack; difficult passes and through balls were finding their targets, players were beating defenders one-on-one, and there were some great finishes as well. Jon Hootnick scored for the second straight game, Alex Freund tallied 3 goals and 2 assists, and center-back Matt Pavlich even added a goal on a late penalty. Up 4-0 at halftime, our two main goals were to keep our shutout and to not let our intensity drop in the second period like we did on Wednesday. I’d say we accomplished both goals without question. We get a much-deserved day off on Sunday, but then we’ll need to train hard in preparation for three games next week, including a match-up with Stevens, currently ranked fifth in the country.