Men’s soccer suffers first conference loss

Kyle Nodarse

The Lawrence University men’s soccer team put their undefeated record to the test this past Saturday against Carroll College and came up a bit short. The Pioneers were picked during pre-season to win the conference and the Vikings knew that the game wouldn’t be easy. What they hadn’t expected was to be forced to play the entire second half without senior forward Chris Carlson after an abrupt and arguably unnecessary red card was issued late in the first half.
While the scoring slowed down in the second half, playing a player down is always a huge disadvantage. The bigger issue is that with his second red card of the season, Carlson now faces the possibility of missing two more conference games this upcoming weekend. The red card is being appealed and reviewed, and hopefully more information will allow Carlson back on the field for this weekend.
Sophomore Andrew Finley started and played the whole game in the net for the Vikes and faced a barrage of shots throughout the game, making a series of saves in both halves. Unfortunately, Carroll had 16 shots in this game, and Finley, along with the Vikings, were unable to stop all of them.
The game was filled with fouls and cards, with 27 fouls committed by the two teams combined. On top of Carlson’s red card, sophomore Marshall Bratten and senior Nick Dufficy both received yellow cards. To top it off, Head Coach Blake Johnson reacted to Carlson’s red card and received his own yellow card for the game.
The Men’s soccer team now sits in third place in the conference, tied with St. Norbert’s at 3-1-0. The men have a big road trip this weekend, heading down to play at Knox on Saturday and at Grinnell on Sunday. Their next home games are the following weekend against Monmouth College and Illinois College.