Bernell DorroughJoe Clarke, head coach of the men’s soccer team, made a poor prediction Sunday. He guessed that captain senior Steve Bujarski and sophomore Rob Weeks would each score a goal, and sophomore John Horky would put a third shot in the net off a corner kick to defeat Centre College 3-0 at home.
In reality, the team took on Centre College for 110 scoreless minutes-the teams tied 0-0 after ninety minutes of regulation and two ten minute overtimes.
The Bears have not scored a goal in the past 214 minutes that they have been on the field, and the tie moved their record to 3-3-1.
“The important thing is that you get chances to score,” said Clarke. “And the really important thing is getting some in the back of the net. We know that’s a problem for our team. We miss so many of the goals we take. They are either wide of the net or high.”
Clarke has a plan that just might help his players. “I told them that I’d talk to the rules committee about making the goal bigger,” he said jokingly.
The Bears barely out shot Centre 13-12, but among those 13 attempts were six promising shots on goal. However, nothing got by Centre’s goal keeper, Jacob Sithers, Likewise, junior Colin Robinson made all four saves possible to keep his Bears in the game.
“In the first half we had two really good chances, but their goalie played well. Our goalie played well too. Colin played a very, very good game,” said Clarke.
After a slow start, the Bears offense showed more aggression in the second half.
“In the second half, there were definitely three or four shots that I thought we should have put in the back of the net, but unfortunately we didn’t,” said captain James Ward, senior.
Though the game was still very much a back-and-forth battle, Ward said, “I think as the game went on we definitely showed that we were the better team on the field. We definitely outworked them and outplayed them for most of the game.”
Ties always bring a level of disappointment, but Clarke still said it was overall a solid game, and he was proud that his men had played tough.
Besides, it could have been worse. In the closing seconds of the game, Centre had an opportunity to steal the game from the Bears.
Once time expired, ending the second sudden death overtime, the referees paused, conferred, and made a call Ward was not expecting.
“A lot of times there will be like ten seconds left in the game and we’ll be playing,” said Ward. “We’ll have a free kick, and the other team will stand in front of the ball and let the clock run out. The referee is not allowed to stop it. Well, this referee changed the college rules today, and decided that he was going to add time on the clock for them to take the corner kick back.”
A referee blamed Ward and flashed a yellow card his direction.
“I did it so that they wouldn’t get the kickoff,” said Ward. Then, after the call, “I was thinking this is wrong. I still think it’s wrong.”
“I was extremely nervous that they might score,” said Ward. “And then I was very happy and relieved that we were able to defend on that last corner kick. It would have just been devastating to lose another game, especially in the last three seconds on a call like that.”