Men's soccer cements last season's winning ways

By Brian Witter

In recent years, the Santa Clara men's soccer team has usually been caught in the shadows their female counterparts. Currently ranked No. 4 in the nation with a 7-1-0 record, the men are looking to break free and are hoping to return to the Final Four in December.

Before Sunday night's 1-0 loss to University of California at Berkeley, the last time the men had dropped a home game was Sept. 26, 2002, when they ironically lost to the Bears. The loss put an end to the Broncos' 15 home-game winning streak.

"I'm not disappointed with what happened against this team," Coach Cameron Rast said. "In fact, I'm pleased with our progress thus far this season. They are an excellent team, and we expect to see them again at the end of the season."

Prior to the match versus Berkeley, Santa Clara was 7-0-0 against all opponents, including such notables as No. 5 Stanford and cross-town rival San Jose State.

"There are two ways to view the success of a match," Rast said. "There's the performance of our team and then there's the final result. We had 13 shots on goal tonight versus their 6, so we obviously had the better performance and played hard all the way through, but unfortunately one mistake cost us the result," said Rast in reference to Berkeley's Calen Carr's goal during the 50th minute.

If the Broncos continue their winning ways, they have a shot at repeating the accomplishments of the 2003 squad that went 16-4-4 before losing in the semifinal of the NCAA Tournament to Indiana. The team is now set to begin a solid five weeks of West Coast Conference play. The Broncos did well in conference play last year losing only to Loyola Marymount.

"I don't exactly see us cruising through the WCC," Junior midfielder Jason Cunliffe said. "Coach Rast always tells us to keep our lows high and our highs low, so we try to remain modest when going in to face an opposing team."

The Broncos have been executing both offensively and defensively so far, giving up only four goals on defense while scoring 17.

"Defensively, it's difficult for other teams to penetrate our back field, so coming out strong on offense is important," Cunliffe added.

On Sunday, Santa Clara's offense came out firing as the Broncos had seven shots with two near goals in both the 28th and 38th minutes.

"The system that the coaches have created for us to play in has been working for the most part," Junior defender Ryan Purtell said. "This is especially true for our offense, which is really starting to click."

Purtell, who won the MVP award during Santa Clara's own Adidas Classic tournament earlier in the season, has started every match for the Broncos.

Rast was a two-time All American sweeper and assisted in helping the Broncos to a share of the 1989 NCAA championship.

"I've drawn plays from a number of past coaches, including guys like Mitch Murray and Steve Sampson," said Rast, with regard to his coaching style.

"Then there have been a few things added to our game plan that I've learned in the time I've spent at Santa Clara."

Along with their performance on the field, the Broncos say they have a great relationship off the field.

"The experience of winning so many games last year and the fact that we kept a good core of our players allows us to have great team chemistry," said junior forward Kelechi Igwe, who had two shots against the Bears on Sunday.

The men's team is getting a lot of attention this season for their record, but for the last few years, the talk of Santa Clara has been the women's soccer program.

"People are taking notice of us now," Cunliffe said. "We've been in the shadow of the girls for a few years and it's great to see the amount of fans that come out and support us." A crowd of over 1,000 fans attended the game on Sunday while almost a double of that came out to watch the Broncos take on San Jose State on Sept. 16.

"It's a competitive market out there, but we are happy to have our fans who keep us pumped up," Rast said.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Broncos will continue to succeed as well as they have thus far into the season. However, Rast remains confident in the future.

"Anything less than a national championship will be a disappointment," Rast said.

*ààContact Brian Witter at (408) 551-1918 or bwitter@scu.edu.