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QUINTIN JAMES
Staff Writer
The Fredonia men’s soccer team was rolling coming into the week. Riding a three game win streak, the Blue Devils were clicking at the right time as conference play started. The offense was working and their defensive effort was showing as they weren’t allowing that many goals.
Coming into the week ranked number 10 in the East Region in the latest NSCAA poll, the Blue Devils looked to improve on that standing and move up in the rankings.
There has been a lot of improvement in this Blue Devil team from a year ago. Assistant Coach Kendell McFayden said the team is playing more together and the results are showing.
“I believe we are more of a team this year, last year we had a lot of very talented individuals but they didn’t necessarily mesh well as a ‘team,’ he said.
Senior Parker Healy also talked how much the team has had a new approach to practice which has helped the team too.
“The biggest thing that changed is the overall approach we had this year starting with practice, we make sure we’re getting better everyday and not wasting any training sessions and it carries over to game day,” said Healy.
The team has had a new mentality this season and the play is starting to show their hard work from it.
They started off the week with a trip to Buffalo as they faced non-conference opponent D’Youville College. This game wasn’t close from the start as Fredonia rolled to an easy 7-0 win.
The Blue Devils started the scoring in the first minute as sophomore Jeremy Bari scored off of a pass to the box of the box by Healy. Senior Bryan Sibble had two goals in seven minutes that put the Blue Devils in the driver seat early.
They added four more goals and they improved their record to 5-1-1.
The next game on the schedule was against longtime rival Brockport. After being down early, they equalized the game before halftime and scored twice in two minutes to pull ahead for good.
In the 40th minute, Fredonia got on the board when Bryan Sibble took a free kick from about 30 yards out, sending it past the Brockport goaltender just before halftime to even the score up 1-1.
Two minutes into the second half, senior Jimmy Ritchie redirected a Sibble shot within the Brockport goalie box to put the Blue Devils up 2-1. Two minutes later, he would score again off a deflection from a Healy shot in front of the net.
Brockport would add a late goal in the 85th minute, but the comeback was for naught as the Blue Devils won and improved to 6-1-1 and 1-0 in conference play.
The last game of the week was against Geneseo. The team had a lot of chances in this game, but luck wasn’t on their side. They were run out of the stadium by Geneseo as they were down early and never recovered. Even though the final score was 6-1, the game could have went either way with the chances the Blue Devils were getting.
Geneseo (4-3-1 / 1-1-0 SUNYAC) came out firing in the first half and exploded for five first half goals. Four of them came from senior Ethan Gunty in the 6th, 19th, 35th, and 45th minutes.
Fredonia had a lot of chances at goal but the Geneseo goalkeeper played an amazing game making seven saves and a lot of them were highlight plays. The Blue Devils outshot them 17-16 and trailed in shots on goal 10-7.
Even though they dropped the last game, the Blue Devils have started the season red hot. In order to keep that momentum, they have to continue the game plan and keep executing it.
“All we have to do is keep working hard in practice and make sure we show up on game day,” said Healy.
McFayden added, “I think the most important thing we have to do is to stay motivated everyday. Every practice and every game from here on out for us is a playoff game, and that’s how we have to continue the rest of the season.”
This mindset will be key if the Blue Devils want to start a run at the SUNYAC title this year.
The loss dropped the Blue Devils to 6-2-1 for the season. The next game on the schedule is on Wednesday against John Carroll University in a non-conference game before they start a stretch of games in conference play.