Kevin McCarthy

Past Entries

Entry 1

Entry 2

September 22, 2003

Coming off a big weekend at Methodist College in North Carolina, the team had to concentrate on the next match against the other local NCAA Division III school, Oglethorpe. With a revamped team consisting mostly of freshman, Oglethorpe came to Emory and played a tough match. Despite some lackluster play at times, we managed to get a solid 3-0 result.

Once the Oglethorpe match was over, the team shifted its attention to Greensboro College. Entering Sunday's game against Greensboro, we knew it was going to be a battle. The past few seasons, they've had our number. The Greensboro squads have always played smart and physical soccer and there was no reason to think that they would play any different this year. However, we know that we are a different team from years past.

The game opened with both teams eager to go forward, resulting in some sloppy play. We created a few good scoring opportunities, including a blast to the upper corner from freshman defender Matt Kaufmann, but we lacked our usual crispness. While we held them to only a few genuine scoring opportunities, they managed to pinch a goal off a corner towards the end of the first half. At halftime we knew we weren't playing our best soccer, yet we were only down a goal to a very good team.

The second half was a very different story. We were able to get better patterning in the offensive third as well as control the flow of play. Early in the half Karl Dix played a beautiful ball from the right wing to Matt Levine's head. Levine hammered the ball into the back of the net leaving the keeper no chance for a save. That goal sparked the Emory team to pick up its intensity and speed of play.

We kept putting the pressure on the Greensboro defense, managing to create both a goal that was called back and a penalty kick. However, we were unable to find the back of the net again until Karl Dix, working from the left wing this time, beat his defender and fired a shot to the lower right corner of the net.

Once we had taken the lead, we were able to make the game easy by possessing in the midfield. Midfielder Anthony Esposito created the last goal by beating two defenders in the corner and finding Levine in front of the net for Matt's second goal of the game.

To go into Greensboro and get a win was a great accomplishment for this team, but the season is only one-third of the way over. Now we've got to turn our attention to this week's opponents, Erskine College and Savannah College of Art and Design. Hopefully we'll be able to carry some momentum into these two games and maintain the team's positive feelings.

Kevin McCarthy is a junior from St. Louis, Mo. He would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.