Case Western Reserve University’s men’s soccer team lost for the second time this season this past Saturday, at Oberlin College, falling to 3-2-2 for the season. With two losses and a tie in the last three games, the Spartans are taking this week to practice and focus on getting back into possession oriented style of play, which proved them very successful in the beginning of the season. The Spartans have a chance to pick themselves up again with a highly anticipated home game this Saturday, Sept. 25 against Heidelberg University.

The loss at Oberlin last week started out very similar to the Spartans’ recent loss against Ohio Northern University; a quick goal off of a corner kick by Yeoman Aki Gormezano in the third minute put Oberlin ahead early in the first half.

Senior captain Ryan Michols commented on the teams’ attitude regarding the early goal, “When you go down a goal early, you need to roll with the punches and continue to play hard. You have to realize there is still a lot of time left in the game, and you need to focus on getting the equalizing goal.” The Spartans did just that and kept shooting, waiting for that first one reach the back of the net. Oberlin keeper Chris Sunby saved a number of the Spartans’ shots, until a shot by Spartan senior Alex King ricocheted off the crossbar where senior Vinny Bell headed the rebound in for the equalizer.

CWRU came out shooting in the second half, having three shots fly high and wide in the first four minutes of the second half. Almost a third of the way into the second half, Oberlin’s Oliver Miller-Farrrell was issued a red card when he deliberately cleated a player that was down after the play. The Spartans failed to take advantage of the call as less than a minute later Spartan Sam Kuehnle was issued a yellow card, and the Yeomen were awarded a free kick in scoring position. This free kick into the box by Oberlin’s Alen Cisija met Wyatt Hayman who slotted the goal, giving Oberlin a 2-1 lead.

As the remainder of the game played out, CWRU continued to attack when they had chance, shooting eight times in the following twenty minutes. None of the shots would connect with the back of the net. The Spartan’s last hope fell in the final two minutes of the game, where shots by Ross Twanmoh and Vinny Bell both went wide as Oberlin held on for the win.

Although CWRU outshot Oberlin 21-10 in the game, only six of the Spartan’s shots were on target and Oberlin keeper was able to save five of those shots. In comparison, Oberlin only had three shots on target; however, the Yeomen were able to convert a pair of shots into goals. With this win, Oberlin broke their five-game losing streak to put them at 3-5 overall.

This loss pulls the Spartans down to a 3-2-2 overall record, and Michols commented on this recent downward trend, “After starting off the season strong, we have fallen into a bit of a slump with a tie and two losses in our last three games…After these last few games we need to refocus and bounce back with a very strong week of practice.”

This week of practice will have one opponent in mind, as the Spartans have high hopes for upcoming game against Heidelberg University. The Spartans have won all four out of four games played against Heidelberg in the last four years and hope to keep their winning streak alive. Heidelberg may give the Spartans a run for their money, boasting a record of 4-2 overall after coming off a win against Oberlin last week. The game against Heidelberg is at Case field tomorrow, Saturday Sept. 25; kickoff is at 2 p.m.