The Wilkes men’s soccer team began its campaign for the 2015 season with big challenges early in the season.

Last year, the team rounded out the season with a four-game losing streak to end the season.

The team’s final overall record ended up being 4-15, 2-5 in the Freedom Conference. The Colonels ended up losing their first four games of the season to some of the best out-of-conference teams in the country, two of which were ranked. Gettysburg is ranked 10th and Elizabethtown is ranked 21st.

“We had a lot of opportunities in all four of those games and just came up short and couldn’t get it done,” said Head Coach Phil Wingert.

The soccer team has a good core group of upperclassmen but also has a few new additions on the field with five new freshman. Freshman goalie Tim Gallageher steps into the net replacing seniors Kyle Romm and Patrick Loube.

“Gallageher has been playing very well — he has made some great saves that have kept us in some games,” Wingert said.

Gallageher has 41 saves on the season and continues to be a concrete wall of defense. The men experienced their first taste of victory on the season when they beat Summit University of Pennsylvania in double overtime 1-0. The Colonels went on to beat Stevenson University 1-0, and McDaniels College 2-1.

The soccer team’s record is currently 3-8, 0-1 in the Freedom Conference with the second half of the season approaching fast.

When talking to Wingert about the first half of the season he explained that, “The game is all about finding ways to win or finding ways not to lose, whether it’s being up 1-0 and eating up clock to stay ahead or being down 1-0 and finding ways to put the ball in the back of the net to tie it.”   

The second half of the season consists of all Freedom Conference games, so the conference is still wide open to the Colonels. The team has only lost one game in the conference — to Fairleigh Dickinson University. This half of the season is formidable but winnable, and the Colonels are well equipped for the challenge.

The men have a lot of firepower on offense. A good portion of it is coming from their senior co captain Eddie Metzger. Metzger has a team high of five goals and seems to be taking full advantage of his opportunities.

“Eddie proves his leadership on and off the field as he continues to be a role model to the younger guys on the team,” Wingert said.