The Plattsburgh State men’s soccer team continued their early season success on the road this past weekend, securing back-to-back victories.
The Cardinals faced off against St. Joseph’s College (L.I) on Friday and St. Joseph’s College (BKN) on Saturday.
PSUC (5-0) defeated the L.I. Golden Eagles 4-1 and the BKN Bears 5-0.
Junior midfielder Nicholas Laurent said that there was a good balance of scoring in their previous game.
“Last year, the scoring load came from certain players, but now this year we are getting contributions from everyone on the team,” Laurent said.
The Cards scored three goals against the Golden Eagles in the first half then scoring one more in the second half.
PSUC got a blowout victory on the second day of a back to back. The Cards scored four goals in the first half and then scored one more goal in the second half to secure the victory.
PSUC head coach Chris Waterbury said the team is improving but he wants the team to be better.
“The expectation on how we should play are always much higher,” Waterbury said. “Sometimes it was hard to decipher if we were better than them because we had better athletes both mentally or physically.”
Waterbury said that the team is able to reach the level that he wants them to be on, and is also relying on the roles of his upperclassmen to propel the team in the right direction down the stretch.
Junior midfielder Ian Spear said the road trip this past weekend was treated as a learning experience.
“A lot of players got some playing time,” said Spear. “We became more confident which is always good because we are getting closer SUNYAC play and the competition will get tougher the season progresses.”
The preseason, as well as these nonconference games prior to constant SUNYAC play helps the team become more confident and ready for conference opponents, where the competition has more of an intense feeling to it because there is more meaning to the games.
Spear also said that preseason is very helpful to the team because it gets everyone on the field together and gives everyone an opportunity to cope with one another and learn each other’s habits and abilities on the field.
“Every game is another opportunity to master our skills and become closer together as a team,” Spear said.
PSUC is back on the road this weekend as they go head to head with Skidmore College and they play one more game before the start of SUNYAC.
Laurent said that playing their style of soccer will play a major factor in the outcome of their next game.
“We have to our play our style because we have spent so much time practicing it,” Laurent said. “Other teams are long ball style of teams that is not really if we stick to our possession based system then we will be fine.”
Spear said that the team is not focusing on one particular thing in practice they are trying to sharpen their skills.
“Not much has changed we are just trying to perfect what we have learned and add on some little things that we picked up,” Spear said. “We are not really changing anything we are actually becoming better at what we have already been implementing.”
PSUC picked up another win Wednesday, shutting out Norwich University on the road 3-0, to improve to 6-0 on the season.
The Cards will take this early season momentum into tomorrow when they face off against Skidmore College at 4 p.m. in Saratoga Springs.
“We need the guys that are doing really well to push the other guys around them,” Waterbury said. “We need to have very competitive practices and push each other out of our comfort zones.”
Email Adonys Temple at adonys.temple@cardinalpointsonline.com
