With three games in five days during and after fall break, the mens’ soccer team didn’t have much of a vacation.

Their run started with a purely dominant performance against Cal Tech on Saturday, October 20. Goalkeeper Nick Zabriskie ’02 kept the Beavers scoreless, as the Sagehens’ offense led them to a 10-0 win. Wyatt Wells ’03 and Liam Patrick ’03 stood out with two goals apiece, and Scott Coleman ’05 added four assists.

After a win on Saturday, Pomona-Pitzer made the weekend even better with a shutout against St. Mary’s, a team from Minnesota. Jay Schneider ’04 worked in the goal and had four saves, while Mario Velez ’04 and Richard Cannon ’05 each scored for the Hens. Velez also had an assist in the game.

A couple of days rest brought the Hens to a game against Occidental on October 24. By a score of 4-1, P-P carried their momentum from Saturday and Sunday into the rest of the week. Rodolfo Bravo ’04, Andrew Watkins ’03, Matt Lee-Ashley ’04 and Gregory Arnold ’02 all scored goals for the Hens.

After the win over Occidental, the Sagehens didn’t play a game until last Wednesday, October 31. Despite the time off, P-P didn’t break their pattern of wins. By the score of 3-1 they defeated the University of La Verne for the second time this season. On October 6 they beat the Leopards 5-1.

With the assurance of a third place finish in the SCIAC, P-P knew that they wouldn’t advance to the playoffs before the game against La Verne began. Nonetheless, Coach Bill Swartz fully intended to play a focused game.

"In [the La Verne] game my goal was to keep the team’s play intense," he said. "When this season’s over, we should have the best record we can possibly have."

As the game began, the Hens came out with lots of energy. Velez and Lee-Ashley scored the first two goals of the game at 12 and 16 minutes into it, respectively. On the second goal, Velez received the assist, which in the end became all the Hens needed to win.

Unfortunately, for the next 35 minutes of play nothing worked for the Sagehens. Time and again they would break away or have clear shots on the goal, yet nothing went into the net.

After halftime Velez came out with another goal for the Hens, which made him the offensive star of the game. This one occurred with just over 40 minutes left to play, and for that whole period of time the P-P offense became silent.

"When the team went up 3-0, I didn’t think La Verne could do it," said Coach Swartz. "I wanted to try out the bench, and they didn’t hurt us. But their goal scared me a little."

With 13 minutes left in the game, the Leopards scored their first and only goal against the Hen’s defense. While this didn’t give them the win by any means, it frustrated P-P.

"Our biggest problem in this game and all year is that we squander our chances," says Coach Swartz. "When we have so many chances, we can’t just credit the other team’s defense. These goals would have been important. The team could have won three or four more games if we could have converted."

In the La Verne game, defense presented a barrier as their goalie made 10 saves on 23 shots. However, the players remained frustrated with their lack of goals.

"We really missed a lot of chances," said Christopher Hunter ’04. "The team really needs to work on that for next year."

Luckily, P-P can resolve any feelings of dissatisfaction on Friday when they play Whittier in the final game of the season.