Courtesy of Brian Beard

Last Saturday, September 28, the men’s soccer team ( 4–1–3; 1–1–2 NESCAC) came back to tie 1–1 against Hamilton College (2–4–3; 1–3–1 NESCAC). The next day, the team lost 1–0 to Williams College (8–2–1;  5–2–0 NESCAC). Although the Polar Bears hoped to secure a win during their Homecoming games, Head Coach Scott Wiercinski and his squad were faced with  tough matchups.

“We knew [Hamilton and Williams] would be challenging, difficult and physical games. Any time you play NESCAC games on a weekend, it’s an insane physical endeavor. We felt like we could get Saturday’s game and then worry about Sunday’s game,” Wiercinski said.

Wiercinski remains positive and believes it is only a matter of time until the Polar Bears hit their stride. The focus now is on learning from last weekend’s games.

“I am continuing to be really optimistic, and the team is too,” Wiercinski said. “The guys have played pretty well. They’ve fought really hard, and we’re just a little bit of quality away from finding goals and finding wins.… So, we need to learn from those lessons and be better as we go.”

Although the Polar Bears held a slight 7–6 edge in shots on goal against Hamilton, the Continentals went up 1–0 in the 15th minute. Bowdoin goalkeeper Alex Ainsworth ’26 made three crucial saves in the remaining minutes of the half, keeping the Polar Bears in the match. Ainsworth’s main focus was keeping an encouraging mindset to close out the game.

“We started the game well. A few mistakes happened, and then [we] conceded a goal,” Ainsworth said. “We try to drive home as a team how we react to situations like that because [they’re] inevitable throughout the season. You’re gonna concede goals. You’re going to go one-nil down. It’s how the good teams battle back from that.”

Bowdoin evened the score when attacker Felipe Rueda Duran ’26 found the back of the net ten minutes into the second half with a low shot that slid right past the Hamilton goalkeeper.

“Given back-to-back injuries this season, it felt good to finally be back on the scoresheet, but I definitely was not satisfied with a tie,” Rueda Duran wrote in an email to the Orient.

Although the Polar Bears had few opportunities against Hamilton, several strong individual performances set the stage for the rest of the season. Standout defender Luke Peltz ’27, who recorded one shot on goal, emphasized how far the team has come and his hopes for the latter part of the season.

“In many of the games that we have played in this year, we have definitely been the better team. We’ve moved the ball better. We played better collectively than the other team.… It’s just a matter of time before the tide starts turning, and we’ll start performing at the levels we know we can,” Peltz said.

Following losses to Williams College (8–2–1;  5–2–0 NESCAC) and Middlebury College (8–0–2; 4–0–2 NESCAC) over the past two weeks, the Polar Bears will look to bounce back tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., away at Trinity College (2–7–0; 0–6–0 NESCAC).

With just four conference games left this season, Peltz expressed faith in his team.

“Expectations are a really dangerous thing to have. You can’t expect to win. Nothing is given to you in this league,” Peltz said. “We want to win the NESCAC tournament. I know we’re capable of winning.”