There aren’t many times that a team can relax during the season. Nearly every game is a battle, and every loss can be detrimental to a team’s NCAA Tournament chances.
But the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team (14-2-1) can afford to relax this weekend, despite the fact that it’s playing Stanford and California. The Billikens have all but wrapped up an NCAA tournament berth and the privilege of hosting a home game in the tourney.
“My thought was we might get some losses in this schedule, so we might need these games for two wins,” said coach Bob Warming.
But now he sees it as an opportunity to give his team rest.
“It’s going to be good to have our guys just go out and play,” Warming said. “We’re going to attack and play and have a good time.”
But the Cardinal and the Golden Bears could pose some problems for SLU. Stanford plays a northern European style of soccer, using tall players up front and having their defenders play long balls from the back. The Cardinal also are the national runner-ups from last season, when they lost to Indiana in the national championship game. Stanford has beaten Santa Clara, who was ranked near the top of the polls for the entire season.
California plays an attacking Latin style of soccer. The Golden Bears are ranked No. 19 in the nation. Ramiro Arredondo leads California with seven goals while Jason Thorpe has four tallies on the season. The Golden Bears are 11-4-2 on the year.
“We’re going to get down to business and get out of there,” Warming said.
Over the weekend, SLU added more championship hardware to its already extensive collection when it picked up its third consecutive shared Conference USA regular season championship. The Billikens defeated the Louisville Cardinals 4-1 on Saturday night on Senior Night at Hermann Stadium.
Louisville jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Goran Yabar in the 16th minute. SLU responded in the 35th minute when senior Jason Mims tucked the ball into the back of the net on a pass from Jason Cole.
The Bills went on top in the 48th minute when another senior, Jeff DiMaria, knocked in a loose ball at the goalline.
More than ten minutes later, Jack Jewsbury hit a low shot past goalie Jeremy Morales to the far right post. DiMaria finished off the scoring in the 83rd minute when he buried an excellent pass from senior Nick Bokern.
Bokern danced through three Cardinal defenders in the penalty area and then fed an open DiMaria at the five-yard spot.
It was only fitting that the seniors contributed on three of the four goals on Senior night.
“We said at the beginning of the year that the success of the team would be based on the seniors,” Warming said. “We’ve counted on them all year.”
With the win, SLU finished C-USA play with a 7-1-0 record. The Billikens ended in a tie with UAB, who beat Cincinnati on Friday night to make it a shared championship.
