By Kim Andrews
Elm Staff Writer
This past weekend, Washington College’s men’s soccer kicked off the semester with two home games for the Athey Cup. Despite being at home, the Shoremen suffered back-to-back defeats, not the opener they expected for the semester.
Their opening game on Aug. 29, against Roanoke College, ended in a 2-1 loss. Around 12 minutes into the game, WC had its first opportunity to score with a header from sophomore defender Sixten Nowlan, but it was intercepted by the Maroons’ goalie. Overall, Nowlan had two shots on the goal.
After some failed attempts to get past Roanoke’s defense, the Shoremen continued to play relentlessly. With 23 minutes remaining, sophomore striker Jordan Waiganjo was served a header by junior midfielder Tshazi Kamau, but left it just wide right of the goal. However, a few minutes later, with a little under 20 minutes left in the half, junior midfielder Tucker Sprano found Tyler Davidson in a good spot, and Davidson was finally able to get past the goal line and off the left side of the post into the back of the net.
Leading up to the second game of the Athey Cup on Aug. 31, against Moravian University, Waiganjo said, “I have full faith and confidence in each and every one of my teammates and the coaching staff that we will bounce back from this.”
While Waiganjo missed his header shot in the previous game, his trust in his team’s abilities was strongly reaffirmed as the Shoremen outshot their opponent, 24-8.
Waiganjo led the shoremen to their first look at the goal only in the fifth minute of play but missed just left of the goal. In the 62nd minute, the Greyhounds secured a lead over the Shoremen. With 15 seconds left on the clock, Kamau set up sophomore midfielder Stefanos Gerogiou for one more attempt at a tying goal, but his header was promptly saved by the Greyhounds’ goalie. Although the clock expired before the Shoremen could tie, they will continue to push forward and focus on the positives, learning from their mistakes as they go.
Freshman midfielder Kevin Martinez took his first shot as a Shoreman 37 minutes into the first half of the game against Roanoke, which was saved by the Maroons’ goalie. While the game did not go the way the Shoremen wanted it to, there was still a significant increase in performance since their last game.
“We will take the positives out of this game as a team and learn from the mistakes,” Waiganjo said.
After losses to Roanoke College and Moravian University, the Shoremen are focusing on the positives as they prepare for their upcoming games. Already the Shoremen will be back on the road on Sept. 6 to St. Mary’s City, MD, to take on St. Mary’s College at 3 p.m.
Photo by Darius Kesey
Photo Caption: The Shoremen started out the season with a pair of losses in the Athey Cup tournament.