Mandi Mooney
Online Managing Editor
October 29, 2004
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Freshman Kofi Frimpong races down the field. |
-Photo by Andrew Stauffer |
Milligan’s men’s soccer team took to the field Tuesday afternoon to play their final regular season game and prepared to battle Covenant College, the regular season champions in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. Ninety minutes later, the Buffs left the field defeated and shut out, 0-1.
“I don’t think we played well at all tonight,” said head coach Marty Shirley. “We have not played to the potential that we have been for the past couple of weeks.”
Both teams held their ground defensively throughout the first half as neither side allowed any goals, despite the teams’ offensive efforts. It was not until the 65th minute, during the second half, that Covenant grabbed the lead when junior David Gambrell scored unassisted.
The Buffs struggled long and hard to get back into the game. The tempo of Milligan’s game rose as they worked against the clock and attempted to make a goal, while Covenant wasted playing time by subbing players in and out.
“Covenant is a good strong team,” said Shirley. “He has got good depth on the bench, so he does a lot of subbing. That sort of disrupts the game when you have to stop and wait on subs.”
With only 14 minutes left to play, senior Steven Townley, this week’s NAIA Men’s
Soccer Player of the Week, thrust a penalty kick into the box, just barely
missing making it into the goal. After a few more missed shots on goal by
Milligan the game ended, handing the Buffs a loss in their final game of the
regular season and the Scots an undefeated season.
“I feel we dominated a lot of the play,” said Shirley. “The credit is to Covenant. They played well, and they did things to get us out of our game.”
Another factor that contributed to the Buffs being out of their game was the absence of senior Alex Kimani who was forced sit the game out due to an accumulation of five yellow cards in previous games. The fifth one came from Saturday’s game against Cumberland University.
“Alex is an anchor for us defensively so it wasn’t the same,” said Shirley. “We can still play well, but play starts with Alex getting the ball and distributing it good.”
The game gives Milligan a third place finish for the regular season with an overall record of 11-6-1 and 4-2-1 in the conference. The AAC Tournament starts tomorrow for the Buffs as they host the No. 6 seeded team in the AAC, as yet unannounced.
“Covenant is a good team,” said Shirley. “We will get another chance at them.”