Margaret Mellott
Staff Photojournalist
mmellot1@jccc.edu
The men’s soccer team fell short against Neosho County Community College 3-1 on Wednesday, Sept. 20.
Going into the game, Chris Lyon, center back, was confident that the team would do well.
“I felt good,” Lyon said. “I felt like we had a strong couple days of practice … but [the game] just didn’t turn out like we wanted it to.”
After Neosho scored the first goal within 20 minutes of the game’s start, the Cavaliers fought hard to catch up, but Neosho scored two more goals before the end of the first half.
It wasn’t until there was less than a minute left in the half that Jason Wolfe, forward, saw an opening to score a goal.
“I felt good because it was my first goal for the team,” Wolfe said. “I wanted to score more but I couldn’t.”
Coming back after the first half, Fatai Ayoade, head coach, thought that the team had more confidence.
“In our second half we came out to play,” Ayoade said. “Before the end of the [first] half, we got a goal and came out second half with the same mentality.”
With all three of Neosho’s goals scored in the first half, Lyon believed that they prevailed in the second half.
“In the first half, I thought they had [more control of] the ball,” Lyon said. “But in the second half, I thought we dominated.”
Moving forward, Ayoade trusts that they will be able to correct their errors from the game.
“We are going to watch the tape and see what we could have done better,” Ayoade said. “We’ll try to plan for the next practice to counteract those mistakes.”
Despite having a rough start to the season, Ayoade remains hopeful for the team’s future.
“Right now we’ve lost two conference games and that’s not good,” Ayoade said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
The Cavaliers aim to turn things around in their next game when they host Allen Community College at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23.