The Tigers got revenge on Nov. 21 against the No. 7 Loras College Duhawks (Iowa) for a loss they suffered last season in the Elite Eight. This year, the team turned the tables and beat Loras 2-1 after falling to them by the same score last year.
Loras went up early in the first half and held their lead through halftime.
“Second half was a great performance,” said assistant coach Edward Cartee. “We didn’t change very much from a tactical point of view, but I think the mentality changed a little bit and everyone just came out extremely focused on executing their roles.”
Coming out of the half, sophomore midfielder Zacharias Edholm scored the equalizer two minutes into the second half after he stole the ball inside the box.
Only 12 minutes later, sophomore midfielder Goncalo Santana scored the game winner; it came from a pass across the face of the goal from Edholm.
“It was good to get the win for coach McGinlay. He always tells us that no team in the nation goes 2-0 against Trinity,” said senior forward Johnny Lawson.
On Nov. 22, they fell in a close match to the host school, No. 8 Wheaton College (Ill.) 2-1 in an Elite Eight matchup.
The Tigers went up after three minutes when a shot from Lawson from found the back of the net.
Lawson had an impressive senior season, leading the team with 18 goals, along with eight assists, for a team high 44 total points.
The Trinity offense struggled the rest of the game. They were outscored in total shots 18-13, and earned just three corner kicks to Wheaton’s seven.
“Their team was way stronger than us””it is something that we definitely need to work on in the future,” said senior midfielder Victor Araujo. “We had good players that were getting off the ball too easy, and that can’t happen.”
The Thunder tied the game just before the half from a header off of a set piece, and got the game winner halfway through the second half.
Trinity was unable to respond to the late goal and fell 2-1 once again in the Elite Eight.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow to say that we lost in the Elite Eight for the second year in a row, but we lost to a very good team and sometimes that is just the way it goes,” Lawson said.
Senior goalkeeper Matt Cardone played the full 90 minutes for the Tigers and recorded seven saves in the match.
This season he had a .63 goal against average, allowing only 14 goals in 25 games and recording 14 shutouts this season.
The Tigers finished with an impressive 24-2-0 record this season, tying a school high for number of wins that was set in 2003. In 2003, Trinity went all the way and captured the Division III National Championship.
“It was very tough to see the seniors’s career end, but if you’re not going to win it all you would at least like to bow out to another team that you respect,” Cartee said. “It [Trinity] was a great team, and I hope that they will always be remembered as such””they deserve to be.”
