Men’s soccer (8-2-1, 5-20-0 NESCAC) dominated over the weekend, defeating the Bates Bobcats (6-4-1, 2-3-1 NESCAC) 2-0 on Saturday and the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons (7-3-3) 1-0 on Sunday. The weekend’s victories brought the team to four consecutive wins, solidifying its strength after an uneven start to the season.
The game against Bates remained scoreless for the first 76 minutes until Chase Caires ’28 passed the ball to Lorcan Mitchell ’28, who snagged a 1-0 lead.
Just one minute later, Sam Gibson ’26 crossed the ball to Alex Bethencourt ’28, who then passed it to Jeff Stauffer ’27 — setting up the Ephs’ second goal. “Jeff sort of dinked it over the center back across the box, and it was bouncing, and I said ‘I’ll have a hit,’ and I just hit it,” said Kellan Grace ’27, narrating the play. “It went in off the post, and it was awesome. It was my first conference goal, first goal at Cole Field, so it was great.”
Saturday’s game also marked the team’s senior day, during which each senior player was recognized for his contributions.
“The team did a great job of recognizing our class of nine guys, because I do think each of us brings something to the table that is really valuable to the team,” co-captain Dan Zhang ’25 told the Record.
Grace also noted the individual strengths of each senior. “I don’t think any of them fills the same role — you go to one person for one thing [and] another for another thing,” he said.
All nine seniors saw the field against the Bobcats, with Ben Diffley ’24.5 playing a complete game in goal and Felipe Gutierrez ’25 playing 65 minutes at center back. Gutierrez was also awarded player of the game for his performance on Saturday.
On Sunday, the matchup was similarly scoreless for the majority of gameplay. In the 61st minute, Mitchell scored from 30 yards out after Diffley played a long ball into Cortland’s half of the field. Following his goals over the weekend, Mitchell was awarded NESCAC men’s soccer player of the week.
“[Mitchell] has just been an incredible guy, both on and off the field,” Zhang said of the first-year.
Hot off a successful pair of matchups, Zhang theorized that the team’s game schedule — three consecutive doubleheader weekends — contributed to its success. “I think that that’s incredibly helpful in the sense that you have a whole week basically to prepare for two games on the weekend,” he said, adding that the Saturday games tend to be more challenging.
He also noted this schedule’s similarity to that of NCAA play. “[Coach Steffen Siebert] wanted to simulate a postseason NCAA tournament run to get us exposed to how a doubleheader [feels],” Zhang said.
After the weekend, co-captain Tate Michelson ’25 said the team has high hopes for the rest of the season. “We’re thinking about Las Vegas right now, which is [the] Final Four,” he said. “It’s turned from hope to belief now. I think there is such a real possibility that we’re going to win a national championship this year.”
Until then, however, the Ephs are focused on the final games of their regular season. “We just want to finish the last four games strong and try and host NCAAs,” Michelson said.
The Ephs play Wesleyan next weekend on the road.
