Men’s soccer team ends their successful season; Loggers lose in second round of playoffs to Trinity
The Logger men’s soccer team saw a fantastic season come to a close in San Antonio, Texas in a 4-0 loss to the Trinity Tigers.
This marked the first time in the second round for the Loggers in over a decade.
The opening half of the game seemed promising for the Loggers, holding the Tigers scoreless for the first 44 minutes. The number seven Tigers opened the scoring with a mere 17 seconds before the clock would expire on the first half.
The Tigers came prepared and looked that way, controlling possession for most of the first half. Trinity was eager to put this game away, taking 13 attempts before the first half was over.
The Loggers looked to control the ferocious attack from the Tigers in the 6th minute when junior goalkeeper Nathan King (Preston, Wash.) prevented a Trinity attempt from being converted.
In the next 11 minutes of the match, Trinity bombarded the Logger goal with five attempts, three of which were blocked while the other two fell wide of the net. King looked to keep his net clean again in the 29th minute with another solid save.
The Loggers found their way into offensive action in the 37th minute when junior Stewart Miller (Helena, Mont.) sent a powerful attempt over the Tiger crossbar. Further signs of life from the Logger attack came in the 41st minute with senior Ryan Rash (Federal Way, Wash.) firing an attempt just wide.
The Loggers looked to close the first half on level terms, but the Tigers had something to say about that when they converted a free kick for the opening goal with only 14 seconds left in the half.
The Loggers tried to bounce back from conceding late in the first half with some offense of their own. Junior Sean Ryan (Mill Creek, Wash.) saw his attempt in the 48th minute blocked by the Tiger defense.
Later, in the 56th minute, the Loggers had back-to-back corner kicks, neither of which produced any result in the Logger’s favor.
This game looked to be a battle, until Trinity netted another free kick goal in the 63rd minute. The game, still manageable for the Loggers, seemed to be put out of reach when the Tigers capitalized on their third set piece of the game putting the Loggers down 3-0.
The Loggers were not going down without a fight, and in the 70th minute senior Eneko Bereziartua (Boise, Idaho) forced a save from the Trinity keeper off a corner from fellow senior Carson Swope (Portland, Ore.).
The final nail in the coffin for the Loggers came in the 78th minute, the only goal of the match that was not produced from a set piece for the Tigers.
The Loggers, continuing their fighting spirit, had three more shots in the last five minutes of the match.
Seniors Alec MacCallum (Bigfork, Mont.) and Luke Sandblom (Scottsdale, Ariz.) saw their shots run wide of the net while Theisen Chang (Vancouver, Wash.) saw his attempt blocked by the Tiger defense.
The Loggers closed the season with a 15-6 overall record and a 12-2 record in conference play. This year marked the first Northwest Conference (NWC) title in seven years and the first victory in the NCAA tournament in 11 years in the Loggers first-round matchup against Hardin-Simmons.
The Loggers will graduate 11 seniors this year but look to remain strong returning 17 players from the current roster.
Among those graduating, both Swope and Colin McIntosh (Olympia, Wash.) earned awards in the NWC. Swope was awarded NWC offensive player of the year and McIntosh earned NWC defensive player of the year.
