Two weeks ago, the Chaminade men’s soccer team celebrated their first win in more than 28 games against UH-Hilo. The win is “just what the team needed”, according to junior Matt Davies, especially since they are leaving for a road trip to California this week. Despite playing nationally ranked teams this week, these athletes believe that this win is just the tip of the ice burg for both the trip and the rest of the season.
“We have never been low on confidence, we always knew a win was around the corner and this win was just what we needed,” said junior transfer, Matt Davies. “We just needed a boost and I think that this win has lifted the team’s moral and now other teams can see we are no pushover.”
Sophomore, Dayton Sato, scored two of the three goals in the win against UH-Hilo, the first goal in the 34th minute and the game winner in the 115th minute.
“It felt amazing,” Sato said. “At first I didn’t even know it went into the goal, then I looked up and just went to go celebrate with the team.”
Junior transfer, Sam Galloway, scored the second goal of the game and has also scored the most goals this season, with four goals.
“After coming off an overtime game on Saturday [against Brigham Young-HI] with a tie, I knew the guys were going to be hungry and I just had a good feeling,” said Galloway.
This Thursday, the Silverswords, currently in 12th place, are looking to add another win to their record against fifth place, Azusa Pacific.
“This road trip is going to be difficult,” said junior defender Matt Schmidt. “We are playing really good teams, some are nationally ranked in the top 25 and top ten [Cal. Baptist and Azusa, respectively], so it will be a real test of how far we have come as a team. Our goal is to come out of this road trip with a total of eight points in the conference, which is double what we have now.”
Last season, the Chaminade Men’s soccer team went the entire trip with out a single win or tie, but the players feel that this year is going to be very different.
“Last season we lost a lot of easily winnable games,” said Junior Midfielder, Nika Sandadze. “We had so many chances and the other team would literally have one chance and then put it away. This year, we are just so much stronger and so much more confident.”
On this season’s trip the team has six returning players and 12 new ones, which is all part of the new team’s alteration.
“This group of guys has been training hard since preseason day one,” said Galloway. “It always feels good to getting a win and I am looking forward to adding some more. Everybody loves a winner and it is about time the guys reap the rewards for the work put in during the off season.”