As the Tigers began their warmup, a crowd of maroon packed the stands to cheer Trinity on against Concordia in their first home game in nearly two weeks. With a bright atmosphere, the whistle blew and immediately the Tigers were on the attack. Senior forward Chen Adjei struck first, 2:56 into the game after a steal, signaling that this time the Trinity Tigers weren’t going to lose.

“It’s been a rough couple of weeks, and we (the team) really had to stick together and I’m just happy to be able to help the team. I credit the trust of the coaching staff and from each of my teammates to let me do what I do and try to help my team win,” Adjei said.

Adjei made good on his words, scoring again at 12:56 with assistance from junior midfielders Luke Newport and Joseph Kuri, pulling the Tigers ahead by two at halftime. Trinity continued to pressure the Tornados throughout the second half, with senior midfielder Connor Jones stepping up after being substituted on and scoring the third goal at 85:28, sealing the game.

And it wasn’t just the offense that was clicking, as the defense put up a stalwart wall against the continued attempts to score by the Tornados.

“It feels really good especially because we haven’t had a shutout since our first game of the season and that usually isn’t something that happens since we kind of got used to having constant shutouts. This year it’s been a bit different and it’s great that we’re going back to having a shutout, it just feels great,” said Juan Carlos Vidales, senior goalkeeper for the Tigers.

This sentiment was shared by the team and the coaching staff, including head coach Paul McGinlay who applauded the aggressive playing style of the Tigers.

“I thought our defending was excellent, we were relentless from the first minute. In fact, it caused the turnover and got a goal after three minutes which is, obviously, a great way to start a game,” McGinlay said.

Aggressive play wasn’t the only thing that the head coach had to compliment. McGinlay later went on to applaud his team’s finishing abilities.

“[T]he thing I think was different from some of our away performances recently was our finishing, we created a lot of great opportunities. Looking at the scoreboard right now, eight shots on goal to none, it’s usually good enough to win games,” McGinlay said.

JonConnor Rule, senior defensive back and captain, agreed and highlighted how the Tigers played a complete game.

“I think just keeping it going throughout the entire game, we started off great from the start getting an early goal and just kept that momentum going,” Rule said. Throughout the game that momentum was put on full display as both the offense and defense worked together to end the game in a win.

The Tigers, however, didn’t only want to have momentum on the field. Jones stated the team wants to keep the winning streak.

“Hopefully we can build off this win, we’re starting conference here soon, so hopefully we start our conference on a good run and carry that on in the conference tournament,” Jones said.

Rule expressed a similar sentiment. “Right now, obviously just going one game at a time. We gotta win next Friday and win next Sunday, after that just keep on winning and winning as we build upon that,” Rule said.

With their first games of this year’s conference scheduled on Sept. 30 against Texas Lutheran and Oct. 1 against Southwestern, the team has already set their priorities.

“Our goal is to pick up home wins,” McGinlay stated. “We only have three conference games at home and five on the road so we gotta make sure we take care of business right here.” With high spirits from the win, the Tigers look forward to productive conference play.