The Cabrini Men’s soccer team continued their streak of success this past Saturday, Sept. 29, when they defeated Waynesburg 4-0 on their home field. The non-conference win raised their overall record to 11-1.
The Cavaliers came out and dominated early but did not score until about fifteen minutes into the game. Senior forward Joe Rotan received a pass from Barry Magagna, a senior mid-fielder, at the top of the eighteen yard box and fired a shot low far post. This ended up being the only goal in the first half.
Cabrini came out strong in the 2nd half and netted three more. The first came off of a direct kick in the 57th minute. Senior back Joe Blaney chipped the ball to freshman mid-fielder, Matt O’Shaughnessy, who then found the back of the net.
Less than two minutes later, Cabrini had a corner kick. After the ball was kicked around in front of the net a few times, sophomore mid-fielder, Brian Moran, knocked the ball in the goal. Senior forward, Mike McDevitt assisted on the play.
The final goal of the contest was scored in the 85th minute by sophomore mid-field Andrew Jacobs. He headed the ball in the net off a cross from senior mid-field Ryan Kirby.
Head coach, Glen Jaskelewicz talked about the difference in the first half in comparison to the second half.
“After we scored, we got away from playing possession and started playing too much over the top. In the second half we worked on getting more possession and getting our midfield more involved,” Jaskelewicz said. “Brian Moran scored in the 2nd half with our midfield being more involved.”
The win just adds to the number that continues to go up. The Cavaliers are off to one of their best starts so far, with one loss and an undefeated league record. Even though the team has most of its same players from last year, they are having a much more successful season.
“The biggest difference about this year is experience. We have so many returning starters and subs that play a good amount of time,” Mike McDevitt said, a senior human resource management major.
Jaskelewicz also talked about experience playing a huge role in the success his team has had so far. “We have six or seven starters who were juniors last year and experienced losses they don’t want to happen again this year.”
As the Cavaliers move further into the season, there are still things they know they need to work on.
“We need to improve on playing a full 90 minutes of soccer,” McDevitt said. “We can’t have spurts of kick and run.”
They have seven games remaining in the regular season and then begin post-season play.