The No. 13 Washington University men’s soccer team lost 5-0 at No. 11 University of Rochester on Friday night and fell again 4-0 at Case Western Reserve University on Sunday afternoon. The defeats dropped the Bears’ record to 11-5-1 overall and 3-3 in the UAA.
Rochester jumped out to an early lead when junior Cliff White scored on a shot that hit the post and bounced into the net seven minutes into the game. Junior Scott Cady increased the Yellowjackets’ lead to 2-0 in the 35th minute, scoring off a throw-in by senior Dominic Pellingra.
The Red and Green continued to struggle in the second half, mustering only two shots on net and surrendering three more scores to Rochester. Rochester’s five-goal output is the most allowed by any Wash. U. team since 2003, when the team fell 5-0 to Trinity University (Texas) in the season opener.
The Bears’ struggles continued against unranked Case Western Reserve, who had only beaten Wash. U. once in 21 previous meetings before Sunday.
Wash. U. controlled the pace of play in the first half, but Case Western went into halftime up 1-0 after senior captain Kevin Bigart scored with 41 seconds remaining in the half off a long throw-in by sophomore Jordan Fox.
“That was tough,” junior forward John Hengel said. “We got a little greedy and tried to score before the half ended, and it ended up backfiring on us. They got a throw-in in our end…and they ended up sneaking one by us.”
Senior Matt Paglia added a goal in the 65th minute to put the Spartans up 2-0, and Case Western added two more goals in the final five minutes of play to secure a 4-0 win.
The nine goals given up over the weekend by the Bears were the most for any Wash U. team in back-to-back games since 1999 and nearly equaled the 12 goals the team had given up all year coming in to the weekend.
“We probably tried to play and attack more than we proved we can do,” Head Coach Joe Clarke said. “We played better than we played against Brandeis and New York on the attacking side of the ball and created chances, but we didn’t put them in… I think we just tried to advance as a team and be more dominant, and we weren’t able to do it.”
The losses put the Bears on the outside of the playoff picture heading into the season’s final weekend. Wash. U. fell from third to fifth in the conference, but can reclaim third place with a win on Saturday and losses by Carnegie Mellon University to No. 6 Emory University and Case Western to No. 11 Rochester.
“We thought this weekend was the key to making the tournament, and we didn’t come up big in either game,” Clarke said. “I would be surprised if we got in, but anything can happen. If a lot of things went right for us and wrong for other people, maybe they would put us in the tournament.”
Wash. U. returns to action and plays its final regular season game on Saturday at 2 p.m., when the team hosts the University of Chicago who is 5-9-3 (1-4-1 UAA).