After lightning rained on Trinity men’s soccer’s week one parade, the Tigers kept the party going in weekend two. They scored nine goals and allowed none at Paul McGinlay Field. With wins on Friday, Sept. 5, against Schreiner University, and Sunday, Sept. 7, versus Kalamazoo College. The Tigers remain perfect with three wins in three games.
In advance of the weekend’s action, the Tigers’ Head Coach Paul McGinlay shared his excitement about the potential to build on a solid opening weekend.
“Friday night was the most convincing, 2-1 win we’ve had in a while,” McGinlay said. “But it was a narrow margin. It shows the fragility of what we’re dealing with. In the first half, we could have put the game beyond doubt. Early season, lack of clinical finishing could have cost us. It reminded me of the first half against Babson [College].”
Babson knocked the Tigers out of the NCAA playoffs last year in a game where Trinity had many chances to score, but were unable to do so. Trinity allowed Babson to regroup after halftime and went on to win the game. Now, with finishing on McGinlay’s mind, the team incidentally addressed their coach’s concerns on Friday night. Facing Schreiner, the Tigers scored six goals with six different players.
While this result represented a much better display of clinical finishing, Schreiner is a team the Tigers have been able to score plenty against in the past, beating them 5-0 last year. Kalamazoo, on the other hand, was largely unknown as the game was to be the first-ever meeting between the two men’s soccer programs. After the 7 p.m. kickoff, it was Kalamazoo who took the upper hand.
Trinity’s style is often about slowing the game down, holding the ball and forcing opponents into exhausting defensive work until they tire and make mistakes. Kalamazoo broke that rhythm. Their midfielders stuck close to Trinity’s, while their forwards pressed defenders with the ball, forcing the Tigers into long passes instead of letting Trinity wear them down.
At the other end, the visitors sent long passes forward for their strikers to chase, a common plan against Trinity. On a field soaked by 12 hours of Sunday downpour, passes bounced awkwardly and were hard for Trinity to defend. Because Kalamazoo wasn’t pinned back as long, they had the energy to attack more often and with more players. With the aid of the wet field, Kalamazoo found more attacking opportunities than other teams Trinity has faced this season.
This produced a Trinity side that frequently threw their arms up, featuring furrowed brows and clenched jaws. Physical play, fouls, pushing after the whistle and complaints to the referee characterized the first half. Despite the Kalamazoo attacking success, Trinity managed to keep them off the board. The Tigers’ best chance came just before the break when a penalty was awarded, only to be overturned after an official’s discussion. Both teams entered halftime scoreless, with coaches from each sideline pressing the officials for explanations.
During the first half, the Tiger bench remained animated, with coaches, particularly Assistant Coach Matthew Kirk, urging patience and a return to their possession-heavy style.
“Matthew hit the nail on the head,” McGinlay said. “We were playing like we were a goal down with two minutes to go.”
Kirk’s first half calls for the team to be patient in the buildup finally sank in after he addressed the team at halftime with a tactics board. Just seven minutes into the second half, the Tigers’ composure reappeared and created a goal. It came as senior forward Joey Perryman held up the ball patiently on the wing before putting in a low, driven cross, giving senior midfielder Adam Knutson time to arrive in the six-yard box to rifle the ball into the net’s top right corner.
Just under 20 minutes later, the Tigers added some insurance in the form of a second goal from junior forward Samuel Theiss. Theiss, Kalamazoo’s goalkeeper Jackson Janderwski, and defender Evan Pollens-Voigt all ran under a ball that was dropping from a high altitude. As the ball bounced for a second time, Theiss slid in and lobbed the ball over the charging keeper, colliding with the Kalamazoo defender as the ball dropped just before the crossbar and nestled in the back of the net.
The Tigers then scored their ninth of the weekend through Theiss again. Knutson danced through the Kalamazoo backline, beating three defenders before scooping the ball past another onto the head of his teammate, Theiss, who redirected it past the keeper.
Captain Samuel Theiss credited “tactical changes” for the second-half improvements.
“We’re still working on that mentality shift,” Theiss said. “We have to carry that not just in the second half, but through the whole game. We’re getting there, and hopefully we’ll bring that next week.”
Next week, Trinity will play their first road game of the season on Friday, Sept. 12, at Texas Lutheran University, with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Then the Tigers return home to face Concordia University on Sunday, Sept. 14.
