Start of the Season: ONU vs Denison Men's Soccer

    After a very promising soccer trip to England and Scotland where the ONU Men's Soccer Team went 4-0, they had their first test back in the states to see if they could continue their good form. On Saturday, August 27 ONU faced up against Denison, a team who won their conference last year, in their opening preseason game.

    Before the start of the game, the ONU team was amped up and ready for the starting whistle. Unfortunately, when the starting whistle did blow, the team looked a bit out of sorts. At first thought, maybe it was just pregame nerves that hadn't worn off yet, but time and time again ONU kept making costly mistakes which led to Denison getting many chances in the first half. These costly mistakes gave Denison a 1-0 lead at halftime. During the break, the ONU team knew they weren't performing well enough but also knew that there was plenty of time left to make up for it and get themselves back in the game. At the start of the second half, it was more of the same; ONU was giving the ball away too much, which led to Denison capitalizing and going up 2-0 early in the second half. This second goal finally woke up the ONU team. They started to settle the game down by making fewer mistakes and creating more chances of their own. This paid off when ONU scored 2 goals within a 10-minute span of each other to tie the game up at 2-2. The end of the second half was filled with action from both teams but neither could score a goal to secure a win.

    With it being the first game of the season, the coaches aren't entirely worried about winning but more eager to see what works and what the team needs to work more on. This is especially true with the team trying out a new formation and freshmen and transfer players getting their first in-game experience. In the end, there were many positives that could be taken from the game but also many negatives. The Polar Bears will get back to work on Monday and prepare for their next match against Kenyon.

Go Bears!