With 14 freshmen on a 28-man roster, it would be safe to peg Fort Lewis College’s men’s soccer team as a young one, but senior Zac Lawrence is making sure nobody forgets about him.
Lawrence, one of three seniors on the team, scored a goal and assisted on another in the Skyhawks’ 2-0 win against Adams State (1-5, 1-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference), the team’s fifth victory in a row, Wednesday afternoon at Dirks Field.
“We’re just taking it from one game to the next,” Lawrence said. “When you have this much young talent it’s important to focus on the next game and try not to think about who we’re playing, just do what we need to do every day.”
After a first half that saw few scoring opportunities, Fort Lewis shifted into high gear midway through the second half. After a few narrow misses by Adams State, the Skyhawks (4-2, 3-0 RMAC) had enough.
In the 64th minute, Lawrence dribbled down the sideline, beat his man and found Tamino Kroeger with a cross in front of the Grizzlies’ net. Kroeger pounded it home to give the Skyhawks the first lead of the game.
It was Kroeger’s fourth goal in five games. He missed two games with an ankle injury.
“I think the more we get into the season, the better we’re getting,” Kroeger said. “We have a completely new back line and so many freshmen, so I think it’s fantastic to be playing as well as we are right now.”
Just ten minutes later, in the 75th minute, junior Yannis Becker returned the favor to Lawrence on a play similar to the first goal. Becker beat his man down the right sideline and found Lawrence, who hammered it into the top right corner of the net to close the deal on Adams State.
“Zac is one of the best players in the conference, and I love watching him play,” said Fort Lewis head coach Oige Kennedy. “We really rely on experienced guys like Yannis, Tamino and Zac because the young guys really look up to them and they are receptive to teaching them the right way to do things out there.”
Although he only made two saves in the contest, freshman goalkeeper Elliot Chadderton registered his third shutout of the season in six games played and is settling into the lineup nicely.
“It’s a massive leap for me because it’s a completely different game at this level,” Chadderton said. “There’s a lot of confidence in our back line, and that helps because we’re all growing together. We spend a lot of time together and we’ve become close on and off the field.”
The Skyhawks will try to extend the winning streak to six as they host a 3 p.m. match Friday against CSU-Pueblo back at Dirks Field.
“It’ll be another exciting game that we have to show up for,” Kennedy said. “To reach our goals, we can’t take any days off.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
