Sagehen Shutout Ends Successful Season
By Maggie Fick
Staff Writer

In their last game of the regular season, the Sagehen Men’s Soccer team trounced the Whittier Poets 7-0 to end their winning season. Having already beat Whittier 5-0 a month earlier, P-P set out to do it again and came out even stronger. The game started off well with a goal from Richard Cannon ’06 early in the match.

The Sagehens continued to dominate with goals from Mario Velez ’04 and Alex Pickrell ’06 before the half. “Seeing several seniors score in their last game was definitely a highlight of the season,” observed freshman Sam Farina-Henry.

P-P kept the pressure on the Whittier Poets throughout the entire game, scoring three times in the first half and four times in the second half. “It was great to see such domination from so many of our players,” said Farina-Henry.

“We let down a little in the end of the first half, but picked it back up again in the second and kept possession for most of the time,” said Velez. The second half began with an assist by Velez, off of an awesome cross to An-Yen Hu ’04, which resulted in yet another goal.

The second half brought only more pain and frustration for the Poets, who could not withstand the mighty Sagehen heat. Two goals by Netza Bravo ’04 kept the game out of reach. A second goal by Pickrell rounded out the scoring.

The Sagehen defense was able to effectively shut down Whittier’s feeble offensive attacks. Senior goalkeeper Jay Schneider recorded a shutout without facing many serious scoring threats. This game marks the tenth Sagehen shutout of the season, a remarkable accomplishment.

“I think the number of shutouts we had this season shows how strong our defense is,” remarked Velez. P-P allowed only 16 goals this entire season, which is the best defensive record in the last five years. “This is definitely the strongest defensive showing we have had in a long time,” said Velez.

P-P came extremely close to tying the record for most wins in a season in Sagehen history. The record is 16 wins, set by the 1973 team, and this year’s team finished with an impressive 15-4 record. After facing a tough 5-1 loss to Redlands last Wednesday at home, the Sagehens rebounded with a 7-0 win over CalTech.

This final win makes P-P the third best team in the tough SCIAC conference, just behind Redlands and CMS.

“Losing to Redlands at the end of the season was tough, but now we are able to look back on what a successful season we really had,” commented Farina-Henry.

“[The win against Whittier] was a very strong way to finish the season, especially since we had so many seniors graduating this year,” states Velez.

Although the team was red hot in their final appearance at home, there was a slightly disappointing number of fans. The fans that were there, however, were treated to the seniors’ final home game of their careers. In keeping with soccer tradition, the seniors were taken out of the game during the second half and given standing ovations from the crowd and bench. Seniors Jay Schneider, Netza Bravo, Matt Lee-Ashley, Joe Amick, Mario Velez, An-Yen Hu, Chris Hunter, and Ryan Takeshita finished a great final season.