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BY TARIQ FISCHER

In print | Published November 11, 2004

Like a well dressed, moon-walking Lazarus, the men’s soccer team came back from the brink.

Many Swat fans believed that last Friday’s loss against McDaniel in the Centennial Conference semifinals would be the final game of an amazing 2004 campaign. They were wrong.

The men’s team competed last night as the fourth seed in the quarterfinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference postseason tournament against Lebanon Valley.

The arrival of the off-season was a disheartening possibility after the gut-wrenching McDaniel loss. The game was marked by extremely physical play with little official intervention. Tensions flared off the field, however, as the numerous Swarthmore fans laughed at the Neanderthal chanting of the Green Terror fans.

On the field, the Terror initially pushed a strong attack from the kickoff. “We had to get comfortable defensively on the Hopkins astroturf,” Wagner said. Andrew Terker ’06, playing on a seriously bruised heel, attempted to provide an offensive spark, but had to leave the match in the first half. “He did everything he could for us,” Wagner said. He returned in the second to contribute 13 more minutes, but the game remained scoreless.

Also in the second half, McDaniel player Leon Mach incited further bad blood after essentially dropping what in football would have obviously have been a late hit on Patrick Christmas ’08 at the near sideline. Foul called, no yellow card. Questionably, the call resulted in a McDaniel throw-in instead of a Swat kick. Mach grabbed the ball to take the throw and pump-faked it into the face of a Garnet player, finally earning Mach the yellow he deserved on the initial foul.

Second-half play continued, and the officials awarded McDaniel a penalty kick in the 53rd minute. The crowd held its breath as senior keeper Nate Shupe read Terror player Scott Morrow faster than a “Got Milk?” billboard. “Shupe knew which direction the kid was going in before he even put the ball down,” Wagner said. “We’ve been working for three years on reading kicks — he’s very experienced.” Shupe dove to his left and made the eye-popping — nay, retinal burning — save to preserve the tie. Morrow decided after the shot to return to his previous sideline managerial position.

Regulation ended and the Tide huddled together to hear Coach Wagner before the first overtime. “I said to them ‘Do you hear that sound over there? We’ve got the best fans in the Conference. Don’t let them down.’” A defensive struggle continued until McDaniel’s Peter Gaitens fired a rebound into the net to end the game.

The conference championship run was over, but not a single player hung his head. The team left the field to a standing ovation from the Tide fans.

Last night’s ECAC game almost started with disaster, as Shupe was beaten near the edge of the box, leaving a wide open net for the Flying Dutchmen. Brendan Grady ’08 was there, however, to clear the fast, low ball off the goal line, leaving the dazed shooter prone on the ground.

The scoring opened in the 15th minute as the Flying Dutchmen crossed the ball to the right post and finished, appropriately, with a flying header. Any and all use of the cognitive faculties of the head was absent with 13 minutes left in the first half as the Lebanon keeper picked up the ball, dribbled, and then picked it up again, resulting in a free kick. Swat responded with cobra-on-crack quickness, as Brandon Washington ’08 tapped the ball to Alex Elkins ’06 for a picture perfect goal.

With 17 minutes left, Lebanon keeper Brandon Morgan looked like he should have been playing double Dutch with his little sister instead of making saves for the Flying Dutchmen, as his futile attempt to stop an Andrew Terker breakaway failed miserably. Still suffering from his bruised heel, well-oiled goal-scoring machine Terker calmly and efficiently took the Elkins service 30 yards to the house, freezing Morgan in his tracks.

The beat-down continued with six minutes left as Washington tooled two Dutchmen defenders en route to a third Garnet goal. In a raucous celebration, he popped his collar and was carried to midfield, Captain Morgan style.

However, Lebanon Valley’s spine was not completely broken until Andrew Macurdy ’08 juked two Dutchmen out of their clogs in their own box, resulting in a Michael Bonesteel ’08 goal.

Swat will host the semifinals against Washington & Jefferson on Saturday. A victory keeps the finals at home on Sunday. An attempt to interview keeper Reuben Heyman-Kantor ‘06 was unsuccessful; he responded to every question with this now-obvious fact: "We don’t lose at home, baby. We don’t lose at home."

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