On Thursday, Oct. 16 the Elizabethtown College men’s soccer team traveled to face off against Penn State Berks. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 15 at Etown, but rain forced the postponement of the contest. Etown scored in the first half and twice in the second en route to a 3-0 victory over Penn State Berks. The win improved Etown’s record to 7-4-1.
Senior Justin Signora started in goal for the Blue Jays. Opposite of Signora was former Etown soccer player Kyle Baker in goal for Penn State Berks. Within the first minute of the game, Etown set the offensive tone. At the minute and a half mark, senior Andrew Sandridge ripped the Blue Jays first shot toward Berk’s goal. The Blue Jays registered 15 shots in the first half.
Berks took control of the ball, which resulted in their first shot by T.J. Yurkovic, but was saved by Signora.
After Penn State’s second penalty, Etown scored its first goal of the game. With an assist from senior Kyle Fowler, sophomore Jamison MacMain executed a sliding kick to the far corner, scoring his second goal for the season.
In the second half, the Blue Jays found more opportunities to score in front of the Penn State goal. In the 60th minute, Fowler found Sandridge for the Blue Jays second goal of the evening. Fowler’s second assist of the game would give Etown a comfortable 2-0 advantage. Sandridge’s goal was his third goal of the season.
With 22 minutes remaining in the game, first-year Scott Hess kicked a floater into the box, followed by a chip over the keepers head by sophomore Brent Batory. The goal was Batory’s third goal on the year and gave the Blue Jays a commanding 3-0 lead.
Sophomore Liam Cunningham commented on the goal, “The highlight of the game for me was probably Brent Baroty’s goal. It was a lovely ball played in from Scott Hess, and the one touch finish from Brent, which floated over the keeper, was magical.”
Cunningham believes there is room for improvement with the way the team played. “One of the main things from most people’s perspectives was that we didn’t play hard enough. We got caught shying away from tackles throughout the game and should’ve gotten stuck in more,” Cunningham said. “The goals we did score were really well worked team efforts, which was something positive we took with us.
The Blue Jays recorded 30 shots for the game, 15 of which were on net. Signora played 80 minutes before giving way to junior Rodrigo Barrera for the remainder of the game.
The men’s soccer team hosted its annual Alumni game on Saturday afternoon during the Homecoming festivities. Following that game, the Blue Jays hosted Goucher College last night in a Landmark Conference game.
The Blue Jays tied against Goucher 3-3 after two late goals allowed Etown to force overtime. Down two goals with under two minutes remaining, the Blue Jays scored twice to even the game at three. Sandridge scored the first goal to cut the deficit to one before junior Martin Fevre scored the equalizer in the 90th minute.
Etown will finish the season with back-to-back Landmark games against Drew at home and Scranton on the road. The Landmark Conference Championships will begin the first week of November. This will be the first year the Blue Jays will participate in the Conference playoffs.
