Scoreless Draw for Men's Soccer

By Ryan Marshall

The delicate net fibers that hang from the goalposts at Buck Shaw Stadium dangled motionless on Sunday, as if frozen in their natural positions, rippling solely with the force of gravity and the tickle of the wind.

The Santa Clara men's soccer team played to a 0-0 draw against Harvard University on Sunday, wrapping up non-conference play. In a game heavily dominated and controlled by Santa Clara, it is hard to imagine that even through two 10-minute golden goal periods, neither team could muster a score.

"Anything is better than a loss," said back-to-back West Coast Conference Player of the Week Erik Hurtado. "But for this group, we don't want to take draws. We're not okay with draws — especially against a Harvard team that (we feel) we're better than."

Santa Clara out-shot Harvard 18-6 overall and 15-1 through the end of regulation, but sometimes the goal just seems to be smaller than usual. Hurtado led all players with six shots — some mere inches away from delivering the Broncos a victory.

"Early on in the game we had a bunch of chances that we should have finished, and that's the key for this team," said Hurtado. "We start missing chances at the beginning of the game and then we start getting frustrated with ourselves."

However, the Broncos have reason for optimism heading into conference play. They have put together an early season resume consisting of four wins, one loss and three draws (the one loss against 11th-ranked  New Mexico).

"I think we had a pretty good pre-season," said senior midfielder Brandon Zimmerman. "We had some good wins and we had a couple that were a little bit frustrating, which is a good thing. This team doesn't want to lose games and doesn't want to tie games, and that's a good thing."

This mindset transcends the playing field on game days and manifests itself on the team's training days throughout the week. Players are staying late after practices to work on their game, putting themselves in positions to better contribute to the team's future success.

The Broncos will continue to pay close attention to detail heading into their conference opener against Portland this Friday at Buck Shaw Stadium.

"I think we learned a lot about our group," said head coach Cameron Rast. "In getting ourselves ready for the conference I think we did a lot to secure our defense. I think we scored some good goals and know what we have in the attack to go to so now we just have to get sharp."

Getting sharp with the added pressure of classes being underway will be critical for the Broncos' success. Rast, in his 10th year coaching for Santa Clara, understands that this can be a challenging time for his players.

"You're not always going to be playing your best soccer all the way through the season," said Rast. "Our guys battled to win (against Harvard), and that's what we want. That's the mentality we want. But if you don't come excited, with energy and sharpness, games can end in a tie."

Sharpness seems to be the main focus for the Broncos as they prepare to play Portland. The personnel, the talent and the cohesion are all there; the Broncos just need to get sharp and stay that way. This coming weekend is sure to have big implications as Portland was the only team to beat the Broncos in conference play last year. Santa Clara also expects another hard-fought game against Gonzaga on Sunday.

Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.