Notes on the Illinois Wesleyan Game

Some would assert that the center of the sporting universe was in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008) with the conclusion of the Ryder Cup but those of us with more interest in actually watching a sport where people sweat left town to go to Bloomington, Illinois. Parents got to see both the women’s team prevail 2-1 and the men record their fifth shutout in a row in a 3-0 win. (Incidentally, when I got there prior to the start of the girls game it appeared that many of the male players were busy studying which is always vaguely comforting to me as a parent.)

The Bears opened up in a 4-3-3 and the match was relatively even for the first 10 minutes, enlivened unfortunately by a very soft yellow on Cliff three minutes in (he had a foul before that but nobody even went to the ground on either challenge) that marked a day of very tight refereeing (1/2 the Denison team would have been on the bench by the half if we had this center a week ago). This was followed shortly by Marshall getting a foot to the face as he and another player got tangled up together and he sat down at the 14 minute mark. He was followed to the bench two minutes later by his substitute, Nick Wilbar, who got taken out on a tackle from behind (the center missed that one). Marshall was fine after the game- Nick has a strain on his knee which was wrapped and Mike (the team trainer who travels with the team) was going to look at it again today.

Nick Karr and Kevin Brege were then dispatched to mid field and both managed to remain unhurt and uncarded long enough to let Harry go just wide with a shot across the goal mouth followed shortly thereafter by John Hengel beating the goalie who was off his line with a shot from about 30 yards out. Pierre then beat two guys on the wing, cut into the box and beat two more guys in the box and then slotted the ball by the goalie into the back of the net. It looked like a replay of his run against Southwestern but with a happier ending. He scored again on a rocket from 20-25 yards out about 15 minutes later which was convenient as all I had to do was press redial on my phone to talk with his dad.

When David Klein was carded at the 36 minute mark he came out as left back to be replaced by Nick Karr. Alex moved up to defensive mid and Harry went back to center back in tandem with Nat Zenner. This was our back side lineup for most of the second half with Chris Weinstein playing in the other defensive half spot. There was a lot of subbing in both the first and second halves. All told WUSTL had 23 players on field, most for over 30 minutes, playing a variety of positions. The defense was solid throughout, with Randy Schoen, who won an awful lot of 50-50 balls, looking particularly solid at right back. At goalie, John and Ryan each had a punch out on a corner to remove potential threatening balls and John had a nice save in the second half reaching up to tip a ball over the top and Ryan had a save in the 89th minute on a shot from about 10 feet out (their best opportunity on the day) to preserve the shutout.

We had a number of good chances for our fourth goal in the second half. Kevin Brege was a half step short on one run with the goalie coming out and about five minutes later hit a shot that rebounded off the goalie back to Alex at the 18 who went over the goal. Kellen had a header that beat the goalie but went wide. Pat mcLean, a freshman from Texas, had a monster shot that started with a cross field ball from Eric Hill 30 yards out to Ryan Grandin on the right side of goal who one touched a volley to pat at the far post who crushed the ball on a volley. It bounced off the goalie hard enough it came all the way back out of the box. Very exciting to watch. The six players up front, no matter who they were did a great job putting pressure on the ball, forcing turnovers and not letting them start up an attack. A nice game of soccer.

The next game is against Truman State on Thursday A DII school who we lost to 2-0 last year and who are reportedly having a very solid season. We play our first UAA game on Sunday October 5th against CMU in Pittsburgh. The Beddos, Neumanns, Jane Plow, Elie Zenner and Onyi Okorofoar and possibly the Karrs and Zenners will all be there and we hope others will join us. For sure it is the closest the Bears will get to the East Coast this season. I think we will be hosting a tailgate or some type of food prior to the game so let us know if you can join us.

Go bears, allez ours.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The above is once again taken from an email message written by Paul Neumann. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the game, therefore, no photographs. For the press relase along with the official box score please visit the WUSTL athetics website. (link)