Propelled by a hat trick from junior forward John Ingham, the men’s soccer team dismantled the Earlham College Quakers 0–5 last Saturday to momentarily hold a record of 2–1. The Yeomen moved to 2–2, however, in Wednesday’s 0–3 loss to the Grove City College Wolverines.

Against the Quakers, the Yeomen dominated on both ends of the field, outshooting Earlham 21–3, while senior goalkeeper Oidie Kuijpers tallied his second shutout for the Yeomen this season.

Ingham’s strong play put the game out of reach early, with all three of his goals hitting the back of the net before the 28th minute. First-year forward Timothy Williams and second-year midfielder Sam Weiss scored two more goals in the 43rd and 48th minutes, respectively.

Ingham was confident that the Yeomen would be able to overcome last week’s 1–0 loss to the Penn State-Behrend Lions and credited the victory over the Quakers to the team’s resilient mentality.

“We just stayed focused on the fact that it’s a long season and that one result doesn’t affect the rest of the games,” he said. “We have 17 games, not just one, so we knew we had an entire week to work at getting better and if we kept our heads on straight, everything would come together.”

In recognition of Ingham’s 7-point performance, the North Coast Athletic Conference honored him as Player of the Week last Monday. Fresh off a standout 16-goal season in 2013, in which he was the conference’s top goal scorer, Ingham now has 20 career goals for the Yeomen.

Coach Blake New, in his 16th season as the team’s head coach, spoke highly of Ingham’s abilities on the pitch and as a teammate.

“The strengths [Ingham] gives to our team is that he just has a nose for the goal. He knows the game very well, he’s a really fiery competitor, but even John will tell you that we don’t hold anyone above the team — he doesn’t have any special situations or perks. His job is scoring goals and is just as important as anyone else’s,” New said.

Coming off a tough loss last week to Penn State- Behrend, in which a goal in the 88th minute was the dealbreaker, the team knew that a different mentality was required to get back in the win column.

“Besides the fact that we were much more effective in the final third of the field against Earlham, the creativity was there, and wasn’t there against Penn State. We had a really strong week of training before Earlham, whereas we were a little lackadaisical coming off that 4–0 win to open the season,” junior midfielder Slade Gottlieb said.

The Yeomen came off of a record-breaking season in 2013, in which they went 14–4–4. This earned the team an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, where they made it to the round of 32 before being eliminated by the University of Rochester Yellowjackets.

New noted, however, that if the Yeomen are to improve on last year’s historic finish, there are some things the team needs to address in order to take its play to the next level.

“We’re still making some mistakes that better teams will punish us for, both tactical or technical mistakes that we’ve got to clean up in the next week or so before we get to conference play,” he said. “I think we have to be smart and play just a little better in the transition game. If we do that, we’ll be in good shape.”

Despite the momentum from the win against Earlham, the Yeomen were unable to hold off Grove City on Wednesday, Sept. 17. Oberlin was unable to connect passes in its usual fashion as the Wolverines dominated possession for the majority of the game. Ultimately, the Yeomen’s slow pace cost them a 0–3 loss at home.

The Yeomen will have an opportunity to redeem themselves when they face the Otterbein University Cardinals at home on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 4 p.m.