By By Dave Diamond
There is no avoiding the fact that the men’s soccer team’s season ended in disappointing fashion.
And while the argument that losing a first round home-game as CAA Champions overtakes any other accomplishment throughout the season is justified, those who followed the Pride all year can argue that 2005 just may have been the most successful in the history of the program.
There is one thing everybody can agree about in regards to the season, in which the Pride finished second in the conference with a 7-2-2 record (14-4-3 overall). While the usual definition of a roller-coaster ride type season is high wins and low losses, the Pride managed to create the same emotion without losing many games.
The Pride made its second straight NCAA Division I tournament appearance for the first time in team history. The tournament selection committee congratulated the now two-time defending CAA Champions with its first ever tournament home game. Did soccer fever catch on after that? Ask the record-breaking 1,251 Pride fans who packed Hofstra Soccer Stadium despite the freezing temperature.
Never-mind the loss; the mark of a successful season is capturing the type of attention the Pride grabbed across campus.
“I think the guys had worked so hard this season and I’m proud of them as a team, and individually too,” head coach Richard Nuttall said.
The Pride climbed to No. 13 in the nation at season’s end, by far the highest ranking in school history. The team brought memories that won’t soon be forgotten, such as Adrian Papaluca’s CAA Championship winning goal with only eight seconds left at Old Dominion. Anybody who was able to hear the stunned silence of the Old Dominion fans while the Pride celebrated in Virginia will likely consider that the high point of the season.
But there were so many other moments that left people in awe of what the Pride accomplished. Its five-game consecutive shutout streak that lasted 575 minutes backed by stellar goaltender Matthias Gumbrecht and the tremendous “back four,” as Nuttall liked to call them, of Billy Chung, Gary Flood, Jason Gates and Corey Gudmundson is another example.
Gumbrecht finished the season with eight shutouts, including six in his last eight games. The senior leaves his Pride career behind with 23 shutouts, a school-record. Two of those “back four” will be returning-Flood and Gudmundson-and as senior captain Matthew Telling noticed, there will be more than adequate underclassmen picking up the slack next year.
“With the players that are returning, they’re going to do well…I can’t see the program going backwards,” Telling said. “I wish I was starting out now.”
One of the program’s most prolific scorers, Michael Todd, is planning to return next year, even though he is a senior, because he has an extra year of eligibility. Despite a hamstring injury that slowed him down late in the season, Todd scored 12 goals, the best individual season for a Pride member since 1998.
Sure, wins are exciting, as is post-season succes, and a bright future doesn’t hurt either. However, perhaps the lasting image of this year’s soccer team was the standing ovation the fans gave the team after Providence College scored to end the Pride’s season.
Above all, it was a showing of thanks to the team for being part of University athletics that reached new heights this fall, and also for the hard work ethic the team brought to the field for every game.