Men’s soccer dominates Rhodes in 3-0 road victory

With yet another strong defensive effort, the No. 18 Washington University men’s soccer team shut out Rhodes College in a 3-0 victory Saturday to tally its third straight shutout. The Bears have only allowed one goal in five games this entire season.

“Our [whole] defense stepped up and played really tight the whole game,” junior goalkeeper Jonathan Jebson said. “Plus the freshmen have been playing really well, and that’s helping out the whole team.”

In addition to the strong performance by the defense, which hasn’t allowed a single goal in the last 337 minutes of game play, the Bears scored the most goals that they have in a game so far this season. A big part of the firepower against Rhodes was the strong performance of freshmen, who have had to play well in the absence of three of the Bears’ best offensive players, junior forward Jeremy Kirkwood, senior forward/midfielder Zachary Query and senior midfielder/defender Kenji Kobayashi.

“Our success was reliant on the whole team,” head coach Joe Clarke said. “The freshmen are becoming more comfortable and are adjusting well to the college game.”

In the first half of the match, sophomore defender Jon Geremia scored off an assist from sophomore Juan Alban in the 33rd minute. The goal was the first of Geremia’s career and gave the Bears a 1-0 lead going into halftime.

While the first half was relatively close, the Bears took over the game in the second half. In the 54th minute, freshman Connor Roach shot a ball that deflected off the crossbar but had a lucky bounce that freshman David Alemany received and put in the goal.

“The game was played closely, but we got a fortunate second goal,” Clarke said. “That second goal deflated [Rhodes], and the level of play of [Rhodes] dropped off after that. We had a lot of chances and could have scored more than just one goal after that.”

In the 73rd minute, junior Michael Flowers scored his second goal of the season off an assist by freshman Ike Witte and put the game firmly in control for the Bears. The Bears dominated the later stages of the second half and outshot the Lynx by a margin of 18-7 over the course of the game. The win brings the Bears’ record to 4-0-1, while the Lynx drop to 1-4.

The Bears will play at Greenville College at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Greenville enters the matchup with a 3-2 record.