Eric Gehrig and Willie Koss, from the Loyola men's soccer team, are Men's Soccer correspondents for the HLN Blog.
We left you days before our big game against St. Louis at Toyota Park. Aaaaaaaannnnnnnd...well, we lost. The support from our fans was unbelievable, as over 2,200 people came out. Despite the loss, we received our Horizon League Championship rings before the game, so that was lovely. It was a game that we needed to put behind us, because no one played well.
It was back to school and another week of practice on Monday. The team was ready to show that we could respond from a poor showing, as we prepared to take on a good UMKC team. Thursday rolled around and it was time to board another plane and head to Kansas City. The following night was another beautiful evening to play soccer and we were determined from the first whistle. In the first half alone, we registered 12 shots to UMKC's two. However, we could not find the net and the drought continued throughout the second half. Going into overtime, the team was relaxed and looking forward to the possibility of storming the field. The decisive goal finally came in the 2nd overtime when sophomore Eric Marofske tattooed a ball that caromed off a defender and into the net. It was euphoric!!! A tailgate followed and the players who call KC home...a total of 7 guys...were able to sleep in their own beds. A great win in front of many family and friends.
Josh Westberg's family hosted a great night of fun on Saturday night, in which we were able to devour some great Kansas City BBQ and relax before our game on Sunday. The next morning, the time had come to register another win. Although we started sluggish and found ourselves trailing 15 minutes into the second half, an inspired final 30 minutes led us to a 2-1 victory. Both goals were scored by senior Mark Halma and assisted by the kid sitting next to me, Eric Gehrig. Halma was named tourney MVP, while Marofske, Gehrig, and goalkeeper Peter McKeown were named to the all tournament team. We were in great spirits having won the tournament and chalked up two more wins to conclude a very enjoyable weekend.
We are in Cleveland right now and tonight we take on the Cleveland State Vikings in a rematch of last year's Horizon League Championship. They're a very good team and we look forward to the match, as it opens our 2009 league season. A match with Valpo at 4pm on Sunday will end our weekend, so this is a pretty important couple of days for us. Hopefully, through hard work and consistent play, things will go our way.
That's about it for now, we will talk to you all again soon.
Peace "brahs!"
