The Washburn soccer team had an opportunity to rest from the Kansas heat and travel all the way up north to Minnesota Saturday, Sept. 5 to open their 12th season in a battle against the Moorhead University Dragons. The team stayed up in the area traveling to South Dakota to play a Sunday match Sept. 7 against Northern State as well.

Given that the relatively new team with 14 new players straight out of high school, the Ichabods showed spirit and fought until the last breath against the team that has only half the number of new players.

The contest was intense and scoreless for the first 69 minutes until the Dragons broke the stagnation. But the Ichabods did not lose their confidence and kept playing hard to rectify the situation and actually ended up overshooting Moorhead 18-12. Unfortunately, the score remained the same and therefore resulted in Dragons’ victory.

One of the Washburn soccer team’s biggest advantages is their conviction to achieve future success. At the same time, both head coach Tim Collins and athletes are aware of the parts of the game that need to be improved and the time it will consume

“Maybe, we could have created a better shot as oppose to rushing it,” Collins said about missed goals. “We’ve identified different ways to attack the opponent team using our strengths to their full, but I was happy with our play overall.”

On Sunday, Sept. 7, the Ichabods faced the Northern State University Wolves in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Again, Washburn showed strong work ethic. Although the Wolves caught the Ichabods “asleep” leading 3-0 during the first half, Washburn outshot its opponent again, working hard to use every opportunity to win.

The second half truly represented the will power of the team. The Bods answered right back with a goal scored by freshman Audra Keehn. Washburn offense ran the attack against a strong opponent. However, the game ended with a 1-3 loss for Washburn.

“We came out and attacked well, defended well. Northern State won the first half, but Washburn won the second half,” commented Collins.

The season has only just started and although the first attempts did not end in favor of Washburn, they aren’t giving up and are confident in their future success.