By Hunter Craighill
Staff Writer
The Sewanee men’s soccer team racked up another impressive win on Tuesday night against Fisk College, outscoring the opponent 5-0. The team advances to a 4-2 record, adding to their win streak. On this three-game streak, they have outscored their opponents 11-0, continuing to play at the highest level.
Tuesday’s game kicked off at 7:00 p.m. and by 7:05 Sewanee had a goal via defender Zach Zimmerman (C’19) with an assist from Alpo Sipila (C’20). From the beautiful cross that seemed to descend from the heavens, Zimmerman took a touch off his chest into a left footed volley that rocketed into the side netting. “It’s been a long time coming, so it almost came as a relief,” the senior defenseman said about his first goal of his long Sewanee career.
In the 25th minute, forward Ben Vaeth (C’20) netted his first goal of the season off an assist by Severin Velasco (C’21). The Tigers attacked with an onslaught of shots from the team, totaling 37 shots with 16 of them on goal. They gave up only two shots to the visiting Bulldogs, one of which was on goal.
They continued to outplay and out-hustle the Fisk team, scoring two more goals before the end of the half, both off the foot of midfielder Evan Poole (C’22). The first, scored in the 28th minute, was assisted again by Velasco, with the second from midfielder Zach Shopovick (C’22) in the 42nd minute. Going into the half, the score was 4-0, with the Tigers on top.
Coming into the half, Sewanee was able to give some of the younger players some playing experience by allowing a number of their starters to rest. Those younger players brought the same intensity nonetheless, executing passes and continuing the tirade of shots on goal. Fisk was unable to put together any kind of attack in the first half, and that did not change with the change of players for Sewanee.
In the 52nd minute, Shopovick was able to score a goal of his own with an assist from William Porter (C’21). Several other shots in the second half barely missed goal or were saved by Fisk’s goalkeeper, Keemo Gardiner. One of the closest came in the 85th minute off a free kick from outside the box by midfielder Fernando Carballo (C’21), whose shot clanged off the crossbar and went out of bounds.
Sewanee walked away with a 5-0 win due to outstanding play by the entire team, starters and younger players alike. Whether or not they had more talent than their opponents, their performance was pristine and they seemed to play at their highest level as a team, which bodes well for the rest of the season.
“We lost a couple of games I feel we should have won, and the games that we have won we were expected to win, but when we play Berry on Friday, then we can start talking about what we’re capable of,” Zimmerman said after the game. “If we get a win on Friday, we can talk about how we’re here to do some damage.”
As Zimmerman said, on Friday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET, Sewanee will play their first conference game against Berry College in Georgia. It is true that a lot of the games they have won were out of conference and against debatably weaker teams than they will face in conference, so we have yet to see what this team is truly made of.