By Kevin Bonner
One week ago today, the Elizabethtown Men’s Soccer team was reeling, having lost three out of their first four games. To make matters worse, southern power Greensboro was coming to town on Saturday, equipped with their number 11 national ranking and four straight Dixie Conference championships. If there was ever a game in recent memory where the Jays were decided underdogs, this was it.
But that’s why they play the games.
Sophomore Ryan Wattenschaidt and the rest of the Blue Jays came out fired up, possibly taking advantage of a tired Greensboro team that drove eight hours to play Messiah the day before. Before the Pride could realize they were north of the Mason-Dixon line, Wattenschaidt netted his first goal, just 1:35 in.
Three minutes later, Wattenschaidt took a pass from junior Drew Wiley and deposited for a quick 2-0 lead. Five minutes, two goals and about a hundred or so Greensboro fans shocked that their team faced a 2-0 deficit to an Etown team that took three games to net two goals.
But the Jays weren’t done. Sophomore Charlie Haines added to the Blue Jay lead by scoring at the 30:26 mark off a pass from freshman Brian Albrecht. Right before the break, Greensboro made things interesting by scoring two quick goals, at the 38:52 and 42:31 marks, respectively. Going into the halftime intermission, the Jays led, 3-2.
Similarly to the first half, Elizabethtown jumped on the board early. Haines netted his second goal of the game just two minutes into the second stanza. The second half remained scoreless until sophomore Steve Custer’s shot found the back of the net with six minutes left in the contest. The final score was Elizabethtown 5, Greensboro 2, which made for quite a long trip back to North Carolina for the Pride, who had lost to Messiah on Saturday, 3-2.
Freshman Edwin Tichenor made five saves for the win.
“We came out really fired up and we actually took it to a team, instead of sitting back and it really paid off,” sophomore Casey Moore said.
With confidence running high, the Jays traveled to scenic Chester on Wednesday to match up with Widener. The Pioneers battled to a scoreless first half, but it wasn’t long until the better team took over.
Elizabethtown’s Brad Kleinert, a junior, took a pass from Haines and tickled the twine at the 47:07 mark, giving Etown a slim 1-0 advantage. Freshman Tim Filewicz netted his first collegiate goal off the boot of classmate Chris Boushell 18 minutes later.
Sophomore Drew Leisenring scored an unassisted goal with just five minutes remaining to close the scoring, giving the Jays a 3-0 win, their first win away from home this season.
Tichenor stopped three shots on the way to earning his second collegiate shutout.
Last night, nationally ranked Drew arrived for a game under the lights at Ira Herr Field. The Rangers came out on top, 3-2, in a game halted after 70:58 of action due to lightning. The game was suspended for nearly 40 minutes before being stopped for good. Ironically, the game needed exactly 70 minutes to qualify as official; it exceeded that mark by just 58 seconds.
Freshman David O’Herlihy and Filewicz scored for the Blue Jays.
“Just an unlucky break I guess. I definitely thought we could of taken it to them in the last 20 minutes, but we just have to get over it,” Moore said.
Etown next travels all the way to Erie to play Penn State-Behrend tomorrow. Juniata comes to town on Wednesday reeling, as the Eagles are currently 0-3-2.