The fourth-ranked men’s soccer team was dominant from start to finish on Friday, Sept. 12, as they battled the sixth-ranked Christopher Newport (Va.) for a 5-3 victory at home.
“Our goal was to really try and take them out of their game plan and put them on the defensive. We wanted to impose ourselves offensively and not let them get into their rhythm,” said assistant coach Edward Cartee.
Trinity’s offense was clicking in the first half. They scored three unanswered goals which set the tone for the rest of the match.
Senior forward Johnny Lawson scored first for the Tigers with a goal in the 15th minute with an assist from Goncalo Santana. A few minutes later, Santana curled the ball inside and across the goal into the corner, scoring with an assist from Lawson.
Sophomore Zacharias Edholm came off of a two-goal performance against Southwestern Wednesday, Sept. 10 and scored a goal in the 34th minute with an assist from senior midfielder Roberto Camargo.
“It’s hard to keep playing aggressively when you have a lead,” Lawson said. “We knew they were going to attack us and come at us, but we also knew that we had to keep attacking.”
Christopher Newport fought back in the second half, scoring three goals, but the Trinity defense held firm to secure the win for the Tigers and the offense put two more away.
“They were good enough to score three goals on us, but we came back even stronger defensively, not giving them chances to score,” said senior midfielder Victor Araujo.
In the second half, junior defender Tom Carwile added to the Tigers’ lead in the 48th minute off a cross with another assist from Santana.
Then, in the 71st minute, Lawson added to his team-leading season goal count with another assist from Santana.
Only six games into the season, Lawson and Santana are near the top of the team in points, goals, assists and shots.
The pair have been a huge presence offensively for the Tigers. Santana was named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference offensive player of the week for his performance in the last two games.
“I didn’t start the season the way I wanted to””I didn’t score in the first couple of games””it was nice to just get my feet under me and get my first two goals in front of the home crowd,” Lawson said.
Senior goalkeeper Matt Cardone saved six shots in the game, helping to hold Christopher Newport to three goals.
“We were just concerned about us””worried about our own performance,” Araujo said. “If we play where we can, we are one of the best teams in the nation.”
Next week, the Tigers will travel to north Texas to take on conference competitors Austin College (Tex.) and University of Dallas (Tex.).
After this win the Tigers have an overall record of 5-1 and a conference record of 1-0.
The matches begin Friday, Sept. 19 in Sherman against Austin College and end Sunday, Sept. 21 in Richardson against University of Dallas.
