Tribe fights Dukes to tie
Men’s soccer struggles at home with W&M
By Whitney Proffitt, contributing writer
Posted on October 12, 2006

The 23rd-ranked JMU men’s soccer team tied unranked Colonial Athletic Association rival William & Mary 2-2 in a game that went into double-overtime Tuesday night at JMU Soccer Complex.

This was the Dukes’ (8-2-2 overall, 3-1-2 in the CAA) third consecutive double-overtime game — their last was Sunday afternoon when Madison tied 16th-ranked Old Dominion University 1-1.

“We had a little letdown from Old Dominion,” JMU coach Tom Martin said. “We felt we deserved a win, but we have got to move on from that, and I’m not sure we did move on from that tonight.”

Madison started the first half strong.

JMU senior defender Mike Tuddenham racked up the first JMU goal of the game with 23:35 left in the first half. Tuddenham headed the ball into the goal off an assist from sophomore midfielder Nick Zimmerman. It was Tuddenham’s fourth goal this season.

The Dukes scored again when junior forward Lasse Kokko passed to senior midfielder Mark Totten, who found the net from 15 yards out.

“We got a great start,” Martin said. “We scored on a free kick. We scored on a running play, and then we stopped playing. You can’t do that against good teams.”

W&M took advantage of the situation and got its first goal with 2:58 remaining in the half. Tribe junior midfielder Doug Ernst passed to senior forward Pat Scherder, who took a shot from 15 yards out to put W&M on the board.

“The team started off strong the first half,” Totten said. “We were playing well; we were on them. We had two goals early, but we let our foot off the gas at the end of the first half and that continued on in the second half.”

The Tribe tied the score when Scherder scored again nine minutes into the second half. Junior midfielder Ryan Overdevest picked up the assist.

“We needed people to give us a lift coming off the bench — that didn’t happen,” Martin said. “We were on our back feet the whole second half until we got some chances and transitions, but we came away empty-handed on those, too.”

In the remainder of regulation, each team put up four unsuccessful shots.

W&M missed on its only scoring opportunity in the first period of overtime. Freshman midfielder Price Thomas rocketed a shot that flew over the crossbar.

The Tribe took four more shots in the second overtime period, but failed to break the tie. JMU couldn’t score, either.

“It’s not a good result when you consider the way the game played itself out,” Martin said.

W&M out shot JMU in the second half 17-13.

Dukes’ senior goalkeeper Kevin Trapp recorded six saves, while the Tribe’s Brennan Wergley got four.

JMU was missing a team leader in the game as senior midfielder Kurt Morsink was benched due to a red card in Sunday’s game against ODU.

“You can see how ineffective teams are when you’re missing the wrong players,” Martin said. “Kurt may have made a difference tonight. It would have been nice to have him on the field, but that’s the time when somebody else has to step in and step up.”

Madison will hit the road this weekend to take on two CAA opponents. Friday the Dukes face Hofstra and Sunday they take Northeastern. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Dukes’ final home match of the regular season is Friday, Oct. 20 against Towson.