Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Beau Markut Zach Buchmann gets tripped up in a home contest against Concordia University of Chicago.

The Muskie's soccer team continues to struggle offensively as they lost another 2-1 against Ripon College on Tuesday Sept. 11.
With a 0-6 start, the Muskies have to find a way to get more shots off. Although they did have seven shots, they were unsuccessful in getting any past the goalkeeper into the new up until sophomore midfielder Ryan Malo booted in a kick off the foot of freshman forward Casey Schmidt 71 minutes into the game. Unfortunately, Lakeland was unable to come together and make the comeback.
"We definitely struggled with our finishing tonight," said head coach Dave Madsen. "There were probably five or six chances that I thought for sure were goals, but the keeper made a save on one and the others either went wide of the post or over the top."
Sophomore midfielder Kevin Fitchett and freshman forward Brian Knight attempted the four shots in he game with two each. Freshman goalkeeper Brock Winkler recorded two saves, while Ripon's Matt Schultz tallied six saves in front of the net.
The Men's Soccer team has yet to get their first victory this season but Coach Madsen is sure they will be able to bring things around and move forward in the right direction by keeping focus, concentration, and awareness as their top priorities.
"One of the goals we gave up was a defensive error," Madsen said. "We weren't very careful with the ball in the back, and I think it caught Brock by surprise. We tend to lose concentration, and I think if we had been able to avoid that and held them to just one goal we could have been pushing for the win at the end of the game instead of just pushing for the tie."
Lakeland will look to brush these losses off as they begin their Northern Athletics Conference play with Concordia University of Chicago at the Muskie's first home game on Saturday, Sept. 15.
"We've been active and very quick to the ball in the box, it's just been that finishing touch and that killer ball that have been missing from our play. We've been competing with every team we have played so far, and have had chances to win those games. I hope the guys are learning lessons from these games and can carry them on as we start conference games."
Lakeland is looking to kick this first Conference and home game off right. The Muskies host Concordia at 2 pm on the Muskie field.

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