The men’s soccer team will play their last regular season home game this Saturday against Trinity.  The Bantams and the Polar Bears are tied for fifth place in the NESCAC and the game holds major playoff implications.
“The Trinity game is our most important game of the season, “said senior captain Michael Gale.  “We will be treating it as a play off game because we need these three points to help keep our NCAA playoff hopes alive.”
Bowdoin travelled to Hamilton and Amherst this past weekend. Facing the Continentals on Saturday, the Polar Bears opened the scoring towards the end of the first half when Zach Ostrup ’13 put in a cross in that Gale headed into the back of the net.  Hamilton responded with the seconds left in the half.  A throw-in led to a cross that the Continentals were able to convert to tie the game.  
“People were disappointed with how we started and it wasn’t a really inspired half,” said senior captain Call Nichols.  “But we tried to put that half behind us and play up to our full capabilities.”
The teams played even for most of the second half until Hamilton scored what seemed like the game-winner with less than two minutes to go.  A handball called against the Continentals with seven seconds left resulted in a penalty kick for Bowdoin.  Eric Goitia ’15 put the ball away in the bottom right corner and sent the game into overtime.  Despite a couple of good chances, neither team could add the finishing touch and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.  
“We were definitely disappointed to drop two points but I think we deserved the result that we got based on how we played,” said Gale.  “The positive is that we fought back to at least get a point out of it.  Its good that our team has a habit of scoring late goals and that we manage to fight back.”
The Polar Bears faced the Lord Jeffs on Sunday.  Both teams had early scoring opportunities that either went wide or bounced off crossbars. Following a flurry of attacks, Amherst scored a header off of a cross to the back post towards the end of the half.  
In the second, Bowdon held off a furious series of corners that forced  goalie Will Wise ’14 to make key saves to keep the game in reach.  The Polar Bears kept the pressure up all half, but they were never able to find the back of the net and the game ended in a 1-0 loss.
“We played an outstanding team on Sunday and I thought we gave a fine account of ourselves,” said head coach Fran O’Leary.  “ I think that if we show the same level of performance and if we keep a cool head then we’ll get positive results.”
“It was a good measuring stick for us to see where we’re at and I think that we now have a much clearer picture of what we need to do going forward to make a late run,” said Gale.
After playing Trinity this Saturday, the Polar Bears will travel down to Tufts on Wednesday for the last game of the regular season. 
“With two games to go, our focus is on Saturday and if we can win two games we’ll have home field for the quarterfinals, “ said coach O’Leary.  “We want to see the seniors away with a win on Saturday and then head down to Tufts.”
“Well its huge because if we win out, which is realistic, we could finish 3rd in the conference,” said Nichols.  “Its a huge opportunity on homecoming weekend to make a statement for ourselves and for everybody else going into the playoffs.”
Should the team lose both games, however, and Wesleyan beats Amherst, in its last game, the soccer team could miss the playoffs outright. One win would clinch a playoff spot.