Eric Lambinus

Close, But Not Close Enough - 10/30/08

Finishing is the Hardest Thing - 10/16/08

Greyhounds Rebound - 9/22/08

2008 Season Begins - 9/2/08

Close, But Not Close Enough - (10/30/08)

Here are some of the statistics for the season going into our last game against Drew:  1) every conference game we played has been decided by one goal or ended in a tie with 4 going to overtime, 2) six of our overall games have gone to overtime (2-2-2 record in those games), 3) 6 of our losses have come by only one goal, 4) we lost 4 games in which we held leads including away games against most likely NCAA tournament teams Lynchburg and Muhlenberg, and 5) eight of our top ten goal scorers are underclassmen.

Last week is a perfect microcosm of the 2008 season.  We had games against 3 of the top teams in our conference - Susquehanna, Scranton and Catholic.  Without a doubt, the team was prepared and ready to play each game.  Nobody can ever question our desire or love of soccer after watching these three games.  The team worked hard, played well and never gave up.  We needed at least 6 points (2 wins) but came up just short. 

In the game against Susquehanna, the Hounds came back twice from 1 goals deficits to earn a 2-2 tie at Homecoming.  Their first goal came just 20 seconds into the game.  Our goals were scored by Lou Dollarton off a Taylor Molinaro flick in the first half and an unbelievable free kick by freshmen Mike Dobbins in the second half.  Both goals came after Susquehanna scored and looked like we were going to be outplayed.  Both times we answered and came out stronger. 

As for the midweek game against Scranton, it was a tale of two halves.  The first half was probably our poorest of the week and we were somewhat lucky to only be down 1-0.  It wasn't that we played terrible, but just struggled to generate any great scoring chances.  But the second half was a completely different story.  Though Scranton was always dangerous, I have no idea how we did not score in the final 20 minutes.  We possessed the ball well, attacked from the flanks and put their backs and goalie under pressure the entire time.  Unfortunately, we could not break through and lost the game 1-0.

Finally came the Catholic game on a rain-drenched Saturday afternoon in what will end up being our seniors last home game of their career.  The game started in monsoon like conditions but the game was suprisingly well played by both teams with good attacking play and solid defense.  The game was pretty evenly played until the last 20 minutes of regulation when Catholic basically pinned us in our defensive third.  Senior GK Chris Nederostek was awesome in goal keeping us in the game with some key saves and controlling the penalty box on what seemed an endless string of corner kicks.  Senior Ruben Concepcion helped the cause with two clearances off the line.  Just as regulation ended, lightning could be seen in the distance (definitely a sign of things to come) and we needed to suspend the game for 30 minutes.  That gave us a chance to regroup and change some tactics for overtime.  Right on cue when the game restarted, we immediately put our ideas to work by playing Lou in a wide position for him to play a diagonal ball across their back four.  Mark Casagrande was on the back end of the service and headed the ball back across to Taylor for the game winner.  It was great to see all three seniors have a big hand in the win!

1-1-1 for the week, 2 overtime games, 3 goals for, 3 goals against, BUT only 4 points when we needed 6!  Close but not there yet.  Eventually this team will figure out that they are good enough to beat all these teams.  All three teams are in the playoffs and are some of the best teams in the region.  One more game at defending champion Drew on Saturday to figure it out.  Hey, if the Phillies can win a World Series, maybe the Hounds can figure out how to finally win these games!

Finishing Is the Hardest Thing! - (10/16/08)

As the Moravian men’s soccer team heads into the Landmark Conference portion of the schedule, we’ve learned several things about the 2008 edition of the Greyhounds.  First of all, this is a young and talented team that can play soccer with just about any team in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Unfortunately, the struggles of the last few seasons seems to have drained a bit of confidence out of them.  In 5 of our 7 losses, the Greyhounds have held leads against very strong opponents but failed to finish off the games, including 2 goal leads in the second half against USMMA and Lynchburg.  The team definitely has the belief that they can accomplish the goals they set for themselves early in the season, it is just FINISHING that belief that they need to do!

The remaining schedule includes 4 Landmark Conference games against Susquehanna, Scranton, Catholic and Drew, as well as a cross-town rivalry game against DeSales.  The Drew game is the only remaining game on the road.  If the Hounds can find a way to FINISH three of these conference games, the playoffs are not out of the question.  This team has always responded when their backs are against the wall and we don’t expect any different this fall.

The Greyhounds will look to begin our playoff push against Susquehanna this weekend (October 18th) during Homecoming Weekend.  The game is scheduled for 3pm on the HUB following the women’s game at 12:30pm.

If you are in town for Homecoming, please stop by the field at 10am for our men’s soccer alumni game as well!!

Men’s Soccer Rebounds from Tough Stretch - (9/22/08)

The Moravian men’s soccer team returned from a difficult tournament in Lynchburg, VA with three games against Muhlenberg, Haverford and LVC.  After giving up a two goal lead against Lynchburg in the first game and getting beat by a very good Salisbury team, the Hounds needed to recover and prepare ourselves for a few teams that we are very familiar with.

In the Muhlenberg game, we started very well by taking a 1-0 lead early in the game on a goal by freshman Taylor Molinaro.  The goal came off a corner kick that Brian Hunscher won cleanly at the top of the box and laid off to Taylor by Gary Grimes.  It was a great start to this rivalry game.  Unfortunately, we were unable to hold the lead through the half when Muhlenberg scored off a header near the end of the first half.  The second half was extremely intense with both teams getting good scoring chances.  Muhlenberg scored the game winner about halfway through the second half on a nice strike from outside the box by their left midfielder.  We did have several good chances to tie the game at the end, especially a header by Lou Dollarton very late in the game, but it was not to be.

As difficult as the three losses were, we did take a few positives out of the games that could help us later in the season.  We started strong in both the Lynchburg and Muhlenberg games and held leads against both teams.  If we can continue to start strong but learn to finish each game, we believed we could start to get some better results.  Right on cue, we scored the first goal in each of our next 2 games against Haverford and LVC. 

Against Haverford, Gary Grimes and Lou Dollarton scored two good goals in the first half to give us a 2-0 lead at halftime.  Typically, we sat back a bit in the 2nd half and allowed Haverford to gain momentum.  Their hard work and intensity paid off when then equalized the game with two 2nd half goals.  We were very unlucky not to win the game at the end of regulation when Lou’s shot off a breakaway slipped by the far post.  Lou would not be denied in overtime when he collected a clearance from Tim Smetana, beat 2 defenders and slotted the ball inside the far post for the game winner.  It was really good for the boys to respond to giving up another lead by winning this game.

A similar theme developed in our weekend home match against LVC.  As in previous games, we started very strong by scoring two early goals by Taylor and Lou.  The second goal came off a great assist by Kyle Jablon to send Lou in 1v1 with GK.  Unlike the previous games where we surrendered leads, we played very strong defensively in the second half and shut-out the Dutchmen.  Even with their 17 shots, Chris Nederostek only made 4 saves due to secure the shut-out.  It was a great result for us considering LVC has beaten us the last few years.

The Hounds continue the season this week against undefeated Kings College on Wednesday and our Landmark Conference opener at Juniata on Sunday.  Both are going to be extremely difficult games but we are looking to continue to play with confidence and believe WE CAN!

Men’s Soccer Squad Begins 2008 Season - (9/2/08)

Over Labor Day weekend, the men’s soccer team began the 2008 campaign by hosting Neumann College and William Paterson University in the Muhlenberg/Moravian College Tournament.  Our team goal for the opening weekend was to get 4 points (at least a win and a tie) from both games.  The team has worked extremely hard since last spring to follow-up on our strong finish to the 2007 season when we won 3 of our last 4 games.

The tournament started strongly when we scored in the first 10 minutes of the game against Neumann with a great finish by freshman Taylor Molinaro assisted by Ruben Concepcion and Gary Grimes.  We completed a strong opening 45 minutes by netting a second goal when Evan Outlaw hit a great early service behind their backline that found the back of the net.  The play was set up by a nice diagonal ball from freshman Matt McFarlane and dummied to Evan by Taylor.  Our strong play continued in the second half with several great chances to finish the game but needed to hold on at the end after giving up a goal with about 15 minutes left.  The team finally found our composure and finished the game with a strong 10 minutes of possession.

After starting the season strongly in the game against Neumann, we believed we had a good matchup against William Paterson in the second game.  WPU pulled the upset against Muhlenberg the night before so we knew they had some quality.  To start the game, we did not seem to have the same intensity in the first half and were down 1-0 at halftime.  I believe we made some good adjustments at halftime and started the second half much better with more focus on defense and more possession of the ball.   Unfortunately, we made 2 mistakes in the back and that lead directly the WPU’s last 2 goals.  We finished the game strong by finally capitalizing on one of our opportunities to score the last goal.  Evan Outlaw finished off a nice pass from Blake Ritchey.

We learned a lot about ourselves over the weekend and feel we have a strong enough team to compete for the Landmark Conference this year.  We head into the second weekend of the season with a stern test against Lynchburg and Salisbury in the Shellenberger Tournament in VA.  Our goal remains the same for the weekend with 4 points the expected outcome.