Ripon College Days

Despite a string of early defeats, which nixed the team's playoff chances, the men's soccer team is looking to build on their late season successes as they prepare for next year.

The team finished the season by emerging victorious in two of their final three games.

"It was a disappointing first half of the season," says sophomore Price Ward. "We had hoped to make it to the post season."

Last Thursday the team played conference champion St. Norbert in Ripon. After a low-scoring first half in which the team scored the lone goal, the Green Knights scored three unanswered goals to extend their lead to 4-0. Ripon finally got on the board when senior Tommy Becker took a pass from senior Roy Stewart in for a goal. St. Norbert added one more goal in the final minute of play to give them the 5-1 victory.

The team had a little more success when Grinnell came to town Oct. 23. The Pioneers took an early lead, but Ripon overcame the deficit on the strength of two Becker goals and won 2-1.

A day later the team defeated Knox 6-1. In a true team effort, five different Red Hawks scored goals. Contributing to the cause were seniors Becker (2) and Roy Stewart, juniors Brady Nelson and Carson Adler, and Ward.

The team, who ended up 6-10 overall and 4-5 in the MWC, will lose six seniors, including Becker, Stewart, and goalie Allen Meser. They will however return a solid core of under classmen and hope to build on this season's late success.

Becker led the team in every major offensive category, scoring exactly half of the team's goals with 21, and just under half of the team's assists with nine. His 51 total points was almost four times the total of Ward who finished with 14. With credentials like that Becker seems to be a shoo-in for Conference Player of the Year.

"It will be tough to replace the seniors," says Ward, "but if we pick up a few good recruits we should have a good shot at making it into the tournament next year."

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