St. Michael's men's soccer team makes history
Defense leads team to early season perfection

Alex McIntire | photo editor
amcintire@smcvt.edu

Junior Fraser Watson applies solid defense against Assumption College. Alex McIntire, photo

In 47 years, the St. Michael’s College men’s soccer team has never been off to a better start. With a record of 7-0-2, the Purple Knights have the best overall record in the Northeast-10 (NE-10) Conference and remain the only undefeated team. The record is so impressive, in large part to the team's dominant defense. In nine games this season, the Knights have held their opponents to just three goals. The goalkeeper duo of senior Tim Williamson and first-year Jason Burnett, has combined for six shutouts. Defense is the backbone of this team, according to Head Coach Wade Jean.

After last season's dramatic run to the conference semi-finals, the Purple Knights are back and looking to make another deep impact in the NE-10 playoffs this year. Already, the team needs just four more wins to top last year's 11-5-4 record. The remainder of its schedule features multiple conference match-ups, many of which will test the St. Michael's defense. 

Successful?

An undefeated record can typically be described as successful. However, success to the everyday fan may not be equitable to the caliber of success expected by the hardest to please, the head coach. Jean says he is pleased with the Knights undefeated record. However, to the head coach who beat St. Anselm’s College on Tuesday, Sept. 18 to bring his career head coaching victories to 100, success is relative.

“We started out good,” Jean says. “Guys got in shape and were working hard, so we are definitely better than we were. But success for us is whether you get into the tournament or not.”

His list of positive accomplishments this season is certainly one that any squad would aspire to. The team won its season-opening Double Tree Kick Off Classic tournament for the first time, and it dominated all other in-state schools, including Lyndon, Castleton and Johnson State Colleges. But acording to Jean, none of these victories apply to the NE-10, which is where it really matters. 

After St. Michael’s 1-1 tie with conference rival Assumption College on Saturday, Sept. 15, Jean expressed some disappointment in not coming away with a win and three points.

“Every game is very important, and these are the games you have to win,” Jean says. “They’ve got a new coach and young squad and we got (this game) at home, so whoever it is, those are the type of games we need to win.”

Team captain Matt Healy says he had similar feelings following last Saturday's game.

“It’s great we’re still undefeated,” Healy says. “But it really hurts to not take three points from this team. It really hurts us in the whole playoff picture.” 

Head Coach Wade Jean. Photo courtesy of St. Michael's Athletic Department

"Defense wins championships"

In sports, words such as success have different meanings for different people. Numbers, however, are hard to argue, and the numbers that the men’s soccer team has been putting up are hard to ignore. While the offense has done its job putting digits on the scoreboard (17 goals this season), the defense has done its job keeping its opponents off the score board (allowing just 3 goals). And as the saying goes, "offense wins games, but defense wins championships."

Jean says that the team takes definite pride in its defensive play this year and gives credit to several of his defensive players including Healy, senior captain Brandon Beaudoin, juniors Fraser Watson and Tim Warren as well as the goalkeepers of Williamson and Burnett. 

“They’re a great back line,” Jean says about his defense. “They’ll fight and battle every game and they’ll work their tail off to keep us in it, so they really are a big part of our team.”

Since Jean took over as head coach a year ago, there has been a transformation in the team's overall style of play. Watson attributes the defense’s stellar play to the conditioning and workouts that Jean requires of every player at the start of the season.

In order to make it through tryouts, each player had to pass three conditioning tests to ensure that most players were already in shape before the season even started, Healy says. 

“Conditioning for us is our first stepping-stone for success,” Watson says. “Historically we haven’t had the type of players that can just walk on a field and take people down. It just doesn’t happen."

Since St. Michael's does not give out scholarships for soccer and other NE-10 schools do, traditionally it’s been hard to bring in higher quality players. Being able to outrun and out last other teams has become the best way to beat them, Watson says.

Reaching goals

While St. Michael's has handled its opponents in the first half of the season, the real challenge will come over the next month as the team faces NE-10 teams in 10 consecutive matches. The team has yet to face perennial quality conference teams such as Franklin Pierce College, Le Monye College, and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. 

Beating these teams will be crucial if the team hopes to make the playoffs, Jean says, as well as perfecting the little aspects of the game should bring the Knights closer to its goal. According to Healy, in order to do so, the Purple Knights will have to play with a bit more intensity and come out a little stronger.

A St. Michael's scoring opportunity in double overtime goes awry during a match against Assumption College. Alex McIntire, photo

“It’s going to take a great effort from everybody,” Jean says. “We’ve got to play with a little more fight and heart, battle for loose balls, and increase our scoring chances so we can find the back of the net."

Winning loose balls and distributing the ball up the field is a key aspect from Watson’s view of what the defense has to do well in the upcoming games. Ball movement, he says, will come as the team distinguishes itself not as defenders, midfielders and attackers, but rather as a single group that can work off each other.

“We need to come together not as just the back four, but as a full unit, on offense and defense,” Watson says. “We’ve historically been kind of a grit and grind type of team but we need to start being more aggressive and going at the other team."

Being able to put two or three goals up against many of these conference teams will be a recipe for success as the Purple Knights will be grinding away at the second half of the season, Watson says. With an undefeated record on the line and the playoff picture to attend to, the Purple Knights men's soccer team has a handful to play for in the second half of the season.