By: Abel Flessner
The men’s soccer team lost its Homecoming game to St. Norbert 0-1 on Saturday, their second loss of the season.
The Stars hadn’t lost a game in two weeks, but the loss to St. Norbert and a tie last Wednesday to a bad Rockford team makes for a rough week.
The Stars had a rough first half, giving up a 34th minute goal and not taking one shot in the first half to St. Norbert’s five. They were on the attack for the entirety of the second half, taking six shots to St. Norbert’s two, but failed to score.
“Definitely missed some opportunities today,” senior forward Tristen Banquil said, placing responsibility for the team’s poor offensive performance on himself.
Head Coach Erick Baumann was visibly frustrated after the game.
“You can’t play a 90-minute soccer game for 45 minutes, and that’s what we did today,” Baumann said.
The first half effort was clearly the difference between a win and a loss for the Stars on Saturday.
Senior captain Ciaran Geraghty said there was no intensity to start the game, but that they made a technical change at halftime to get into the attacking third faster.
“We need to…prepare to come out flying [against Concordia Wisconsin] because there is no other option at this point,” Geraghty said.
After a promising start to the season, the Stars have three more home games in a row against CUW, Aurora and Edgewood to get back on track.
Baumann said the team needs to be able to “compete” to have success throughout the rest of the season but declined to comment on what the team needs to adjust to do so.
With three road games following this coming home stretch against current top 7 NACC teams, the next three games could decide the Stars’ fate moving forward, as they currently sit at 8th in the conference.
“We have all the tools we need to get back on track,” Banquil said, “we’ve proven we have what we need to win games and be competitive in games.”
After a successful start to the season, the team will look to forget this week moving forward.
“We just have to go out and execute, and that’s what our focus will be moving forward,” Banquil said.
With a home stretch to look forward to, the team has an opportunity to bounce back after a difficult week, but it will be intensity and execution that determines their future success.
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