ATLANTA -- The Covenant College men's soccer team traveled to Emory University on Wednesday afternoon in hopes of kicking off the 2010 regular season with a win. Having lost to Emory 3-0 and 1-0 in the past two seasons, the Scots were hoping to avenge their recent losses by overcoming a talented and organized Emory squad. The home side, however, was well prepared for Covenant's challenge, and quickly set to dominating the pace of the game from the start. Indeed, the Eagles came out of the gates flying, creating chance after chance as they ran at the Covenant defense. Covenant's junior goalkeeper John Eger was repeatedly called into action throughout much of the first 45 minutes, as he made four crucial saves to keep the score on level terms. He also had his posts to thank, as Emory saw two shots, including a penalty kick, rejected by the woodwork.
"We were fortunate to be tied 0-0 at half," said head coach Nathan Pifer. "They out-shot us 11-1 in the first half, had a penalty kick that they missed, and created some good chances that could have been put away. I was happy we were tied." Nevertheless, while the first half scoreline may have been favorable to the Scots, the injury update was not. Senior captain Hunt Davidson injured his quad in the first half of the game and was unable to return for the second period. This left the Covenant defense, which was already without starting left-back Todd Fleming because of an injured knee, incredibly thin. "It's never an easy thing when you have injured players," said Coach Pifer, "but even with the injuries, I encouraged the team to be thankful it was still 0-0, and to go out and improve in the second half."
The Scots took those words to heart and started the second 45 minutes with an improved intensity and tempo. Freshman midfielder Matthew Hudnut had the first good chance on goal for Covenant, as his dipping, 25-yard shot was barely tipped past the post by Emory goalkeeper Trenton Spindler. Senior David Pifer also had a glorious chance for Covenant, but his left-footed shot was saved by Spindler at the near post.
Even with the improved Covenant efforts, it was Emory who struck the first blow in the 75th minute of play. Junior forward Nao Masuda ran onto a long pass that was played over the Covenant defense, beat the onrushing Eger to the ball, and slid his shot into the net to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. "It all happened really quick," said Masuda after the game. "I only had two or three seconds to react, but I was able to get a toe on the ball before the keeper (Eger) could get to it, and I put it in for the score." After the goal, Covenant pressed more numbers forward in search of the tying score, but the already thin defense was caught on a counter attack by Emory midfielder Kamron Zia, who sealed the deal for the Eagles with a nice right-footed shot in the 83rd minute.
"I saw some positive things in the second half," said Coach Pifer after the game. "We had several chances early on when the game was still 0-0 that could have changed things had we put them away, but we weren't able to. All we can do now is try and heal up our injured players before this weekend and build off the encouraging things we saw at times tonight. Obviously a loss is not how we wanted to start the season, but we are a young team that's only been together for 2 weeks, and we are going to improve."
The Scot's first chance for improvement will be this weekend, when they travel to Greensboro, North Carolina, to face Guilford College and Averett University in an early-season tournament. Kickoff against Guilford is at 5:00 on Friday, while the game against Averett starts at 12:00 on Saturday.
