Rough Start Leads to Later Results for the Tigers

Mike Walsh

Taggart Suddes

The Tiger men's soccer team put a poor start behind them over the weekend to clinch their first win of the season and a tie against one of the top teams in the nation.

Going into the weekend with a record of 0-3 the Tigers visited nationally ranked DePauw and Rose-Hulman on back-to-back days. Against DePauw on Saturday, Wittenberg went into halftime with a 2-0 lead, but the home team to catch up and take a 3-2 lead. The Tigers rallied late in the second and the hard work paid off with a Mike Walsh (Springfield, Ohio/North) goal with just 7 minutes left in regulation time. It was his third goal of both the game and the season. The first tally came in the first half off a cross from Greg Zeller (Springfield, Ohio/North) and the second first-half score came after Steve Doring (Huber Heights, Ohio/Wayne) provided the long ball over the defense. The 3-3 tie was a valuable starting point and showed signs of improvement that will be necessary if the Tigers are to improve on last season's 10-7-1 record.

On Sunday the Tigers capitalized on the previous day's tie with a victory over Rose-Hulman. Walsh turned from scorer to provider for the first goal, which was scored by Taggart Studdes (Ostrander, Ohio/Dublin Coffman). Studdes then doubled his tally seven minutes later after Brian Armstrong (Delaware, Ohio/Dublin Coffman) provided a breakaway pass from the right side for the junior to slot home.