The Sagehen booters had their opportunities to score, but they were all squandered, and the CMS stags pushed the Hens off of the cloud they had been riding on with a 3-0 shutout Wednesday evening.

The loss was the fourth shutout in five games that the Sagehens had been involved in, but it was the only Hen loss in those five games. Before being shutout by CMS, the Hens had scored 18 goals in the previous four games, winning the last two games by a margin of 12-0. The loss was the Hens’ first loss in SCIAC play, and it dropped their overall record to 5-3-1 (3-1-1 SCIAC).

The first half ended with CMS holding a narrow lead of 1-0, on a goal by Garret Jansama CMS ’01. Had it not been for the efforts of Aaron Mandel ’02, who saved three CMS goals early in the game, the game could have taken a very different turn. The Hens only managed one shot in the last 15 minutes of the half, a very close miss by Ben Funke ‘01 on an inbounds pass.

The ball saw very little time in CMS territory throughout the first half, as they had almost exclusive control over it. Once the second half began, though, the Hens came out seemingly re-energized, and they were able to match CMS in the ball control battle for the first part of the half. Despite the fact that the Stags had managed to essentially shutdown star midfielder Eric Dugan PI ’00, the Hens kept the ball moving on both sides of the field.

Filling in for Dugan by adding a boost of energy to a Sagehen roster in desperate need of a spark was outside halfback Greg Johnson ’00. He posted impressive performances on both offense and defense, accounting for a large part of the five shots that the Hens took in the game and making several key steals to stop Stag breakaways.

Johnson’s play was representative of the whole team Wednesday night; it was obvious that he was putting in great effort, impressing everyone and their grandmothers with his play, but he was still unable to turn his hard play into results. While they did many things right in the second half, especially on defense, they were still not able to keep the Stags from scoring two more goals.

They surely made it look like they would, though. Five minutes into the second half, the Hens started to make an assault on the goal. It was in this period of several minutes when the bulk of their shots were taken, and the rabbits behind the net scurried into the bushes for fear of the onslaught. But it was not to be. Despite finding themselves in scoring position several times over the span, they were unable to convert. Midfielder Liam Staskawicz ‘03 commented, "We really weren’t finding the space we needed. They did a good job of closing us in when we needed to spread out."

After this stretch, it became clear that the Hens were overmatched, and the momentum began to shift in favor of the Stags. Randy Snow CMS ’01 scored the next goal on a corner kick in which he nearly fell out of bounds, and Trevor Mutch CM ’02 finished off the scoring with 10 minutes left to play. Staskawicz said of the defense, "We didn’t defend well as a team unit, more constant pressure was put on the defense [than in previous games] throughout the game. It was bound to break down."

The Hens will look to redeem themselves with games at Redlands tomorrow and at home against Blackburn next Monday before facing perennial SCIAC powerhouse Cal Lutheran on Wednesday.