Box Score STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Sophomore Leo Herrmann continues to rack up the goals and the Franciscan men's soccer team's defense impressed as the Barons defeated visiting Waynesburg, 3-1, Monday afternoon.
Despite getting down early, 1-0, the Barons (3-3-1) didn't waiver and stuck to their game plan and it paid off. "I really like how the character of this team is developing. We did a lot of work during the summer and offseason on mental agility and not letting the little things that happen in a soccer game bother us and we are doing a good job just sticking to our game plan," remarked head coach Ward Rogers. "Funny things happen in soccer, the ball takes a funny bounce, a ball gets away from you, and last year sometimes that stuff bothered us. These little things happen in the course of a game and we don't let it get to us this year. This team is really starting to get comfortable with each other and know where the other is on the field."
The Baron defense pressed up on forward Victor Browne to try and draw an offsides but he got a quick pass from Sam Almeter and a lucky bounce to score past a diving goalie to his right. The Yellow Jackets led 1-0 just 2:18 into play.
Coach Rogers was impressed with how the Barons didn't put their heads down but still stuck to their game plan. "We worked hard to come back and stick to the plan and we got some nice goals."
Part of that plan was getting Herrmann the ball in an open spot and that they did. Herrmann took a nice pass across the box from senior Edwin de St. Aubin in the 14th minute and made a play around a Yellow Jacket defender and shot the ball to the bottom left corner of the net for his eighth goal of the year.
Not two minutes later did Herrmann give FUS a 2-1 lead. Herrmann positioned himself nicely in front of the net and won a 50/50 ball off a defender from a cross into the box and got a good touch on the ball despite falling to the ground for his ninth goal of the year. Herrmann put the final touches on his second hat trick of the season as he headed home the ball off a de St. Aubin corner kick in the 18th minute.
With the lead in hand, the defense took over and did a nice job controlling the play for the Barons.
"The defense is really doing a great job coming together," commented Rogers. "What you can see is the defenders are really working together and the center backs, Pat Canavan and Dominic Vander Woude, are in the middle organizing the forwards and midfielders while Cuyler Ledyard can get the ball up the sides of the field to let the midfielders release and maintain a good possession."
"Leo James did a really great job playing right back for us tonight. It's a hard position to come into as a freshman and he is doing a great job. Not only him, but our guys off the bench, Tim McNamara, James and Dan Binette, were impressive tonight. Coming into the game and maintaining the level of play we had going."
The second half of play proved to be more defensive orientated on both sides of the field, though towards the end of the game, the Barons were really starting to string passes together and get some good looks on the ball.
The Barons out-shot the Yellow Jackets 12-5 in the second half and held a 22-14 advantage in the game. Senior Edward Huber had another solid outing in net for FUS making six saves on the seven shots he faced in the 90 minutes of play.
With three goals tonight, Herrmann pushed his career point total to 55 and became the all time point scorer for the Franciscan men's soccer program.
Franciscan looks to carry this momentum into Wednesday as the Barons host Washington & Jefferson at 5:00 pm.
