The St. Edward’s men’s soccer team went head-to-head with Fort Lewis College on Thursday evening at the Lewis-Chen Family Field. In their third game of the season, they came in with one win, one tie, eager for another win.
St. Edward’s men’s soccer rallied from a 3-2 deficit to tie Fort Lewis College 3-3 Thursday night at Lewis-Chen Family Field in a game that featured six goals and dramatic momentum swings.
After watching back the team’s last game against Mississippi College, head coach Brian Young said that “Corey Miller (associate coach) put together a good game plan” that was executed well by the team.
The first half of the game was divided – both teams putting up a fight and playing a strong defense. St. Edwards took about five close shots, but the score remained tied at 0-0 despite the intense back-and-forth.
Young said that he “was happy that the guys were fighting back” in this gritty faceoff and that “it’s hard as a team to respond” to such quick changes by themselves, but they did well with communication.
The second half of the game started off strong, with a corner kick leading to the first goal of the match scored by redshirt freshman Filip Adamski, assisted by Misael Rangel and Bartek Zabek), putting the score at 1-0. Despite 10 minutes of impressive defense from the Hilltoppers, Fort Lewis scored, tying the game at 1-1.
Soon after, Hilltopper Shunji Watanabe headed the ball into the goal (assisted by Ebuka Bright-Osigwe), gaining an advantage against the Skyhawks at 2-1.
“Communication in the field is very important, and it’s gotten better from the last game,” Watanabe said. “…A big issue we have … is we get comfortable. And then we … try to be more defensive-wise, like that mindset. We could (have) more of an attacking mentality.”
Both teams received a yellow card, making the intense game even more heated. The Skyhawks then scored two goals in a short period of time, tying the score and then taking the upper hand at 3-2.
Spectator Marcus Bitong said that the first half was intense, “it really picked up in the second half” and that Fort Lewis made an “unexpected comeback” to catch up with the goals the Hilltoppers were scoring.
With less than four minutes to the game, Adamski scored another goal, settling the score at 3-3, making an impressive move that had the crowd roaring. This was considered to be the highlight of the game, making tensions even stronger with a short window for either team to take the lead.
With little time remaining, neither team was able to break the tie, leaving the score at 3-3. The Hilltoppers returned to play Sunday afternoon for another home game at the Lewis-Chen Family Field.
