A doubleheader on Friday, Oct. 4, during family weekend between McMurry University, the newest member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference’s (SCAC), and its next departure, Trinity University, created noise from the benches and the fans on McGinlay Field. Five goals for Trinity and a complete shutout for the men and the women would prove enough for Trinity to stay undefeated in all of SCAC soccer play in 2024.
For the first time this year, the men got the doubleheader started, a trend set to be the standard for SCAC play at McGinlay Field this year. Trinity came into the game ranked as the No. 24 team in the country, undefeated in both conference and nonconference play. On the contrary, McMurry came into the bout off of a six-to-one loss at the hands of Concordia University the Sunday prior.
While the result mirrored the season statistics in terms of who won and who lost, it didn’t live up to the expectations of Paul McGinlay, men’s soccer head coach, or sixth-year defender and captain Jon Connor Rhule.
“I think they [Trinity] looked at the stat sheet before the game and came out with a pretty nonchalant approach to the contest,” McGinlay said. “We were lucky to get away with the three points today … it was a disappointing start, and we never really dug ourselves out of it to be honest, we won the game, but there were many lessons to learn.”
Trinity came out slow and only opened the scoring against McMurry just before halftime. A long throw from junior attacking midfielder Adam Knutson was flicked by senior midfielder Braden Shuey to the back post, where sophomore defender Luke Mayfield finished the chance. Despite an emotional halftime talk from McGinlay and Rhule, Trinity only added one goal to finish the game 2-0.
In the second game of the night, the energy levels were higher for both Trinity and McMurry as the Tiger women opened their last season in the SCAC under the lights. Coming off of an incredibly challenging road trip against some of the top teams in the country in Virginia, Trinity was ready to show out at home in front of their families against newcomer McMurry.
The game was electric as the possession in the attacking third went back and forth early. Trinity opened the scoring just 16 minutes in, when a rocket of a shot from junior midfielder Bri Werner shook the frame of the goal and popped back into the center of the box. From there, senior forward Abby Schneider found the rebound and headed home for Trinity’s first.
The score remained 1-0 into the second half but then first-year defender Kylie Harris took the game into her own hands and cemented a Trinity win with her first collegiate goal and first collegiate assist. Her goal sent the bench into a frenzy as Harris intercepted the ball near midfield and quickly carried up the wing before cutting in, muscling past two defenders and scoring from just outside the penalty arc.
The third goal came from a cross from Harris into the back post. After the game, Trinity’s third goal scorer senior forward Maya Ozymy explained what she was thinking as Harris’s cross floated toward her.
“I’m just looking for first contact, in all honesty, and then whoever takes first contact, I’m looking to finish the second one,” Ozymy said.
It has been an excellent start for Trinity with only one loss all year to No. 5 ranked Christopher Newport University, who are the only team to score on the Tigers this season. Ozymy shared that the culture in the locker room this season is a big reason for their success.
“I think in my four years here, I’ve never seen a team so close as a unit. Truly top to bottom, freshmen to seniors. … I could not be happier to play on this field with them and work hard every single day with them,” Ozymy said.
After the game, Head Coach Harrison shared some of his insight into the match and how they look to carry this momentum moving forward in the SCAC.
“We’ve had hold of the SCAC for so long, and it’s just only fitting that we continue to take care of business,” Harrison said. “That’s a new team in the conference [who were] organized and defended with numbers behind the ball, but we had some good opportunities and actually scored some really nice goals with [Ozymy] scoring one of them.”
Both teams went on to beat Concordia on the road 1-0 on Oct. 6. Both teams are set to take on Texas Lutheran University on Friday, Oct. 11, and then face Southwestern University on Sunday, Oct. 13.
