The Trinity Tigers came into this weekend with four wins in four games. Even more impressively, Trinity had thirteen goals in their opening four games and had only allowed five goals. While Trinity maintained their undefeated streak through this weekend, it wasn’t clean. Two draws in four days is by no means a bad weekend, but with the Tiger’s high standards, it was clear the players and coaches were unhappy.
Tigers’ head coach Paul McGinlay made the first move of the match between Trinity and Hardin-Simmons with an intriguing roster decision. First-year center-back Ethan Cowdrey got his first start of the season over seniors JonConnor Rule and Jack Eubank. Hardin-Simmons gave Trinity fits last year with their long throws and set pieces, so starting the 6’7” first-year was a well-thought-out move by McGinlay.
The first half was extremely slow, with neither team having many scoring opportunities. Toward the end of the first half, a loose ball popped off the arm of Cowdrey. The referee made an easy decision and awarded the penalty to Hardin-Simmons without hesitation. It seemed sure that Trinity would go into the half down one, but senior goalkeeper Austin Williams made a huge save that brought on halftime with the score zero to zero.
Just 11 minutes into the second half, the referee made an unpopular decision among Trinity supporters by awarding a second penalty. Williams got a hand to it again but this time, the shot was too powerful and the ball squeaked past him into the back of the net.
The Tigers knew that they had to strike back, and, after 15 minutes of pushing, junior Will Powell rolled a driven pass across the six-yard box to junior Hunter Cain, who tapped home to equalize the score. Just four minutes later, junior Michael Meese created chaos in the box with a shot that somehow ended up at the feet of sophomore Adam Knuttson, who bounced the ball into the back of the net to give Trinity the lead.
Trinity seemed to have the game locked up into the final five minutes, but a bouncing ball was misplayed by the Trinity backline. This led to a Hardin-Simmons equalizer from Thomas Salaye, although the Trinity live stream originally credited the goal to Scott Lebo.* The clock ticked down to zero and the game ended level, the first time all season that Trinity did not win.
“Trinity is used to winning, we have high expectations of ourselves and high standards, so it felt like a loss,” senior defender Jesus Veloz said. “It hurt. It was painful. We clearly weren’t happy even though we didn’t lose.”
With these high standards comes a necessity for improvement. When results don’t go the Tigers’ way, they’re going to find a way to get better. The game against Hardin-Simmons was no different, and Veloz and the team already had something to work on.
“Our mentality in the game [is something to work on]. We have been going down every single game, and we’ve been able to come back and win. But now, being able to sustain that mentality from the beginning of the game and finish it off all the way through,” Veloz said.
Trinity was set to play the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), a Division I team that beat Trinity in a preseason scrimmage 4-0 in 2022, but according to Veloz, the locker room was not fazed.
“It is definitely something to prove to ourselves and to prove that even though we are Division III that DIII is just a label,” Veloz said. “We can compete with a Division I school. And they’re our neighbors right across the street so we just got to mark our territory. We own San Antonio.”
The Tigers came out well against UIW, and after UIW was denied by the crossbar, it was Trinity who opened the scoring. Powell placed a ball perfectly to the head of senior Chen Adjei, who just lofted it neatly over the keeper for the Tiger opener. Trinity’s backline and goalkeeper Austin Willman played brilliantly in the second half to keep the Tigers ahead, including a strong tackle from Veloz. However, a controversial penalty plagued the Tigers in the end.
This game shows the growth of the Tigers since they last played UIW. The Tigers will host the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at Paul McGinlay Field on Friday, Sept. 22. This will be the Tigers’ last chance to hammer out any kinks before they go on the road for the first time since last year’s SCAC final.
*Scott Lebo, the writer of this story, used to play for the Men’s Soccer team.
