Jared Klim – Special to the Southern News
Coming off their win over the University of Bridgeport last Wednesday night, the men’s soccer team bagged their first conference win of the season as they defeated Saint Michael’s College 2-0 this past Saturday.
The Owls got off to a fast start with junior Sabri Akter scoring right under the 10-minute mark. Senior captain Alex Soriano dribbled around Saint Michael’s defenders before passing it to Akter, and shot it to the far left side of the goal post for Akter to score his second goal of the season.
The early goal gave the Owls the lead and Southern ran with it for the rest of the half. Tom Lang, head coach, spoke about the advantage that early goals give to the team.
“It makes a big difference, it’s a big boost for confidence,” said Lang. “You talk before the game on certain goals and objectives that you have certain things you want to achieve at the beginning. Getting a goal and getting your opponents down a goal, it’s a big boost for moral.”
Before last Wednesday’s game against Bridgeport, the Owls were coming off two straight losses. But Southern’s men soccer bounced back from those losses, as they have now won two straight games to improve their record to 3-2 on the season.
The Owls did struggle early with ball control, but the early goal led to more desperation from Saint Michael’s.
Coach Lang spoke about the game against the Purple Knights.
“Saint Michael’s is bit of a scrappy team,” Lang said. “Sometimes we got caught up in a kid playing their style and the way they play, and not really focusing on what we need to do.”
After the second half got underway, Southern was quick to score again with a goal in the 53rd minute by sophomore Alex Brown. However, it was freshman Jan-Malte Thesenvitz run along the left goal line that set up Brown for his second goal of the season.
After the 2-0 lead, Southern never looked back and remained composed to earn their third win of the season.
The rest of the game was dictated by Southern’s defense. And the Owls’ defense put up a second straight shut out led by junior goalkeeper Noah Varoneir.
“It’s communication and working for each other the last two games that we got two consecutive shutouts. That’s good, and we have to keep it going from here,” said Varoneir.
Soriano, who totaled an assist on Akter’s first goal of the game, spoke about the win and the streak the Owls have.
“You always want wins,” said Soriano. “Even the games that we lost we were in them the whole time, so it’s just things we have to clean up. And now things are starting to come together at the right time.”
Soriano also touched on the improvements Southern needs to make for the upcoming games on the schedule.
“We have to work on keeping the ball,” said Soriano. “In the first half we got a little nervous. We were just giving the ball away easily without much pressure and causing our own problems if we clean things up. There’s not going to be too many teams that can deal with us.”
The Owls look to keep their win streak alive as they take on crosstown rivals University of New Haven on Wednesday Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. at Jess Dow Field.
Photo Credit: SCSU Athletic Communications
