The ETSU men’s soccer team played against Virginia Military Institute on March 30 at home in Summers-Taylor Stadium, in which the Bucs dominated their home turf with a 7-0 win against the Keydets.
Within the first 10 minutes, freshman Jared Leheta (Montreal, Canada) scored the first goal and freshman Tarik Pannholzer (Flensburg, Germany) scored the second.
“We were good to move the ball quickly today,” said head coach David Casper. “We tried to really limit our touches to taking two touches at a time and just playing fast.”
Sophomore Lucas Lightner (Clarksville, Tennessee) scored the third goal of the game and the last goal of the first half, leaving the Bucs starting off the second half of the game with a comfortable lead of 3-0.
Leheta scored the fourth goal soon after the second half of the game started, followed by Lightner. To top it off, Pannholzer took home the last two goals for the team.
“We were pretty effective going around on the outsides today. Our fullbacks and our wingers were good to combine and get dangerous into the final third,” Casper said. “Finishing goals in soccer isn’t always easy. It took us 37 shots today to get the goals, it’s not always an easy thing, but we were pretty good in our finishing today.”
Coming off of this win, the final game of the regular season is this April 3 against University of North Carolina Greensboro.
“We are looking to probably be playing for second place in the league, so it’s going to be a big game,” Casper said. “The guys are in a good place, I think we started the season pretty rough, but we encouraged them to stay together and keep working. We’ve done really well, but the job’s not done yet. We have got to keep building, keep growing, but the guys have done a great job staying committed to each other.”
As a team, having chemistry and a good relationship with fellow teammates is something that helps build up team morale and confidence on the field.
“The guys enjoy being around each other,” Casper explained. “I think it’s a strange year with [Covid-19]; we have not been able to do a lot of the normal team-building stuff that we would do, but regardless of that, the guys have really grown together, they get along really well.”
“Of course, just like any family, they’ll fight at times,” Casper acknowledged. “But they really do enjoy being around each other, and I think you see that on the field because they fight for each other.”
