SEWANEE - Just over a week and a half ago, most of the members of the Covenant College men's soccer team had never even met each other. But after 10 days of intense practices and strenuous fitness tests, the team was able to take the field against Sewanee this past Saturday and come away with a 3-1 victory.
Having graduated eight seniors from the previous year, head coach Nathan Pifer knew he needed to overcome the loss by bringing in some fresh, new talent for this season, and he did just that by recruiting eight freshmen and giving three JV players a call-up to the varsity squad. But even though the numerical comparison may appear favorable, there is still a lot more than mere numbers that goes into building a quality team. Fitness, skill, unity, and chemistry are just a few of the essentials that must come together if the team is to find success.
When the team gathered for the first time on Aug. 18, there was only a little time to fit in the amount of work that's usually required for such cohesion. “It's difficult having only ten days to prepare for your first match,” said Pifer. “We had to put in a lot of work over such a short period of time, and some of our guys suffered through it. I challenged them to come in fit, though, and thankfully most of them did. That made it a lot easier for us to move through the preseason with some quality.”
Indeed, the Scots were subjected to four-a-day practices and testing mile runs for much of the 10-day period, but as witnessed by their 3-1 victory over Sewanee, they appear to be well on their way to gelling as a team.
“The Sewanee game was a good win for us,” continued Pifer. “It may have only been an exhibition on paper, but it gave some of our younger guys a chance to play, gave us someone to play against besides our own teammates, and it gave us a boost going into our first game against Emory this Wednesday.”
The Scots were able to dominate Sewanee for a majority of the game. After enduring a spell of missed chances early on, senior midfielder David Pifer was able to start the scoring for the Scots by running onto a header from freshman center-mid Garrison Dale. The senior winger latched onto the ball, cut between two defenders, and curled his shot into the net to give Covenant a 1-0 advantage midway through the first half. The scoring didn't stop there, though, as last season's leading scorer, Julian Allgeier, was able to slot home from a Matthew Hudnut pass just before the break. Allgeier then continued his scoring trend in the second half as well, running onto a header from Brian Stair and sliding the ball into the net for a 3-0 lead.
“3-0 is what we shoot for,” said Coach Pifer. “In the regular season, 3-0 is the scoreline that earns us the most points, and those points are valuable for postseason seeding. This may just be an exhibition, but we still want to get that mentality to beat teams in such a fashion.”
After a hard-fought 89 minutes, it seemed as if Covenant would accomplish that goal, but freshman defender Barrett Schmidt was adjudged to have fouled a Sewanee player at the edge of the box with just seconds remaining in the game. The referee then awarded the home side a penalty kick, and despite freshman goalkeeper Shuler Polk's best efforts, the penalty was scored to end the game at 3-1. Now, with its one and only preseason exhibition under its belt, the Scots will wait until this Wednesday to kick off the regular season at Emory College at 7:30 EST.