The Bowdoin Men's Soccer Team suffered its first setback of the 2007 campaign in a loss to Williams College 3-2.
Last weekend, many of the Bowdoin faithful walked away feeling disheartened as the Ephs ran off the field after scoring the winner with only 28 seconds remaining in regulation.
The reaction of the crowd was the result of one cold, hard fact: Williams won despite having the lead for only seconds, and Bowdoin lost even though it held onto the lead for over one-third of the game.
Half a minute was all the Ephs needed to overtake the Polar Bears. It is this opportunism that might help to explain the Ephs' five NESCAC championships in the last six years.
The battle between two of Division III's most talented teams started with a goal from central defender Will Grunewald '10, who was able to take advantage of a positively delightful setup from Nick Figueiredo '08, 38 minutes into the game.
The Ephs responded quickly with a goal of their own two minutes into the second half. The contest remained one all until Figueiredo again found his name on the stat sheet, rifling a header home off an extremely precise cross from Harry Ashforth '09 in the 58th minute.
Not to be outdone, Williams scored an equalizer with 15 minutes remaining.
The final quarter of an hour was an exhibition of extremely exciting, back-and-forth soccer, culminating in a Bowdoin corner with just under a minute to go. Bowdoin fans felt confident that the top scoring team in the NESCAC would take advantage of this opportunity, and send everyone home happy.
The ball was kicked into the box; it rattled around near the Williams' goal for a while and then, in a flash, sat motionless in the back of the Bowdoin net.
As fast as this counter attack transpired, the remaining 28 seconds on the clock seemed to tick away even faster as the Polar Bears suffered their first loss of the season.
Ultimately it came down to, "two mental errors in the last fifteen minutes," said Figueiredo.
The guys showed mental fortitude three days later as they took on a tough Gordon team, and earned a 1-0 victory after two hard-fought overtime periods.
Gordon is a team that "plays us hard every year," said Figueiredo.
It took the Polar Bears a total of 115 minutes and 21 shots to find the back of the net, but finally Ben Denton-Schneider '11 tucked one away to put Bowdoin back on the winning track.
Denton-Schneider's goal was particularly important as it "[gave] us some great momentum going into practice for the rest of the week and a huge weekend versus Amherst," said captain Brendan Egan '08.
Dominic Fitzpatrick '09, a stalwart in the Bowdoin defense, was able to come back from an injury suffered against Williams which required six stitches under his right eye, to help Nathan Lovitz '08 record his fourth shutout of the season.
Saturday afternoon Bowdoin will travel to Amherst College, home to the fifth-ranked team in the country.
This game is perennially one of the best in a typical NESCAC season because, "they are an extremely talented group of guys who fight hard and never have a poor showing against us," said Figuerido. Saturday's game is especially important since it will be the Lord Jeffs' first game on their new home turf.