by Cory Cruz
Staff Writer
After playing three matches in three days, the 1995 La Verne men’s soccer team brought its season to a close Saturday afternoon after a 3-3 tie with Caltech, finishing the season with a 3-13-2 overall record and 1-7-2 in conference.
“This has been a very frustrating season for the team due to injuries and a lack of strength from the bench,” said junior defender Darin Soliday who red-shirted after getting injured early in the season.
In the final game against the Beavers, La Verne jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half on goals by junior goalie Sean Piazza, with 33:02 left and senior forward Kevin Willmore with 30:34 remaining. Caltech came back in the next 30 minutes and took a 3-2 lead into halftime.
Freshman defender Andy Decker scored the lone goal in the second half to tie the game with 28:32 remaining in regulation, but neither team could score and the game ended tied.
“We needed to recruit to build a better program,” said junior defender Seth Tunstall, another player who was injured during the season. “I don’t think that we had all the players needed to make the team as good as possible.”
Along with injuries, there was also a lack of commitment.
“We didn’t have good turnouts to practice. No one was very committed to the team this year,” said Piazza.
“People were getting disappointed with losing all the time, but win or lose, you make a commitment, you should stick with it through the good and bad times,” said Soliday.
“Different players stepped up at different times, the problem was that the team didn’t play as a unit the majority of the games,” said junior defender Peter Hopping.
