The Bowdoin men’s soccer team came out of its match last Friday night with a scoreless tie against Thomas University (4-3-1). The game was the second in a row in which the Polar Bears played two overtimes. Despite the extra time and empty scoreboard, goalie Will Wise ’14, who played the entire 110 minutes, only recorded two saves. The Polar Bears controlled possession most of the game, frequently getting into Thomas’ half of the field, but the team was unable to capitalize on any of its 24 shot attempts, 11 of which were on goal.
“I think everyone’s a little frustrated. We had possession of the ball a lot of the time but didn’t really finish them that well,” said Wise. “Once we missed a couple we got pretty anxious and tight and missed a few shots we probably would’ve made otherwise. I think we shot ourselves in the foot a little.”
Coach Scott Wiercinski added, “I think one of my frustrations Friday night was the lack of urgency and lack of professionalism in terms of on the field stuff, getting the right things done.”
While this was only the second time the team has been shutout this season, Wise and Wiercinski emphasized their frustration over the lack of goal-scoring this season.
“I think we should have more goals to show for the number of chances we’ve created,” Wiercinski admitted. “We hope to design practice where we’re getting subconscious reps on the things we need to work on, but the truth is we haven’t scored a ton of goals in practice either.”
The Polar Bears’ fortunes turned later in the weekend with a 10-0 victory at UMaine-Farmington (1-4-1). The men again controlled the game and had their fair share of opportunities, but this time were able to capitalize on their 21 shots on goal. Bowdoin first put some numbers on the scoreboard in the fifth minute, when Hunter Miller ’16 scored the first goal of the game. Austin Downing ’17 fired in the next two goals, one of which came during a six-minute stretch where Miller, Andrew Gray ’15 and Downing, with the help of a Farmington own goal, scored a combined five goals. Colton Hall ’16, Kiefer Solarte ’16 and Sam White ’15 also found the back of the net to give Bowdoin a 10-0 lead going into halftime. While no goals were scored in the second half, the Polar Bears continued to dominate in the second half, with UMF only managing to get off four shots the entire match.
While impressed by Sunday’s scoring barrage, Wiercinski does not expect to regularly see such a performance from his team.
“We got more lucky than in previous days,” he said. “We’re not always going to score the highlight-reel type goals. They were great to see, but not ones we can count on.”
After the two non-conference games, Bowdoin reenters NESCAC play this week with games at Trinity and Bates on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. According to Wiercinski, the team is looking to exploit Trinity’s possibly predictable defense, and keep the ball away from their more dangerous front, in order to get their first conference win of the season.