Men’s Soccer weekend a success

Kyle Nodarse

The men’s soccer team made the dreaded drive to Illinois College and Monmouth College this weekend, but they left all of the bad feelings with the two home teams. Going into the weekend, the men’s team sat at 1-1-1, good for a tie for fourth place in the conference.
On Saturday, they began to push for third. Freshman Bennett Pang found the back of the net off senior Joe Sluhoski’s assist, and sophomore goalie Steve Schnorr made three saves in the game to hold the Illinois College Blue Boys scoreless. The men dominated the Blue Boys across the board, outshooting IC 17-9, and eventually winning the game 1-0.
On Sunday, Sluhoski got the game started by scoring his eighth goal of the season in the first minute, with an assist from Doug McEneaney. The Lawrence men got lucky on their next goal: Monmouth scored in their own net in the first half. McEneaney closed out the first half with his second goal with an assist from Jimmy Kloppmann.
While Monmouth’s chances of getting to the conference tournament, the Vikings are setting themselves up to qualify for the same. After making it to the conference championship two years ago, the men just missed out on going last year and look to fight their way back into the mix this year.
Sluhoski’s eight goals and three assists at forward have led the Vikings this year. Freshman Paul Richter and sophomore Steve Schnorr have also played a big part as the two goalies, sharing time in the net and leading the way defensively.
The Vikings have home games the rest of the season, so everyone should head over to Alexander Gym and support both the men’s and the women’s programs. The men can be seen in action next at home on Saturday, Oct. 13 at noon, playing against Carroll.
After a great weekend, the Vikings managed to pick up all six points from their two games, and now sit in third place in the conference standings. The top four teams qualify, so things are looking good for the Lawrence soccer team again this year.