Offense Plays Hooky
Men's Soccer Plays 120 Scoreless Minutes

By Peter Keiper-White
Staff Writer

For a team that has been generating virtually no offense, the daunting task of playing over 38 minutes of soccer one man down seemed overwhelming. However, the Wesleyan men’s soccer team turned in a strong defensive effort and escaped with a hard fought 0-0 tie with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on Friday night.

"Whenever you don’t score you have to be concerned," explained Wesleyan head coach Terry Jackson. "We have to learn to finish the scoring chances we create. It is something we will address before our game against Clark on Wednesday."

Wesleyan’s offensive chances were few and far between. Their best opportunity came in the middle of the second half when Eric Steffen ’01 sent a sharp pass to Miriti Murungi ’99 at the upper left corner of the box. Murungi blasted a shot towards the upper right corner but the WPI keeper leaped and got just enough of the ball to deflect it out of harm’s way. That was it for the Cardinals (0-0-1), who generated only 10 shots on goal.

Making it even more difficult for Wesleyan was the fact that WPI plays on artificial turf instead of the natural grass that most other teams use. Playing on an unfamiliar surface for the first time is challenging, especially for a young team such as the Cardinals.

"Playing on turf is very different than playing on grass. The ball behaves differently, it doesnt respond the way it does on grass. Also, the ball is much harder to control," Senior midfielder Jason Shuster said. "It wasn’t that they are more skilled than us just that they are more used to playing on turf."

Fortunately for Wes the WPI offense was equally inept. Keeper Mark Penrod ’01 only had to make four saves as WPI mustered a paltry 13 shots. His best save came early in the second half when, after an outstanding cross by two WPI players, Penrod ranged all the way to his left to knock the ball away.

The Wesleyan defense had a lot to do with WPI’s offensive problems. They didn’t allow the Engineers (2-1-2) an inch, forcing them to make the big play in order to generate offense. The Engineers did, however, have an excellent chance to put the game away as the second half was winding down, but failed to capitalize.

After an aggressive tackle of a WPI attacker, sophomore fullback Avi Stopper was handed his second yellow card. Stopper was therefore ejected and the Cardinals played the remainder of the game — the final eight minutes of regulation plus 30 minutes of overtime — down one man.

The score remained deadlocked, however, as WPI could not do anything with the advantage as the strong Wesleyan defense held them to only two long range shots.

"Our defense played well when we needed them to," said Junior midfielder Sean Wilkinson. "We didn’t allow them to develop a flow even when we were down a man."

The scoreless tie was the first for the Cardinals since 1995 when they tied Western Connecticut State.