After starting their season 1-3-1, Hamline’s men’s soccer team was looking for a good beginning of their MIAC campaign. They got it when the defeated the Concordia Cobbers 3-0 at Paterson Field last Wednesday. It was a good offensive and defensive effort for the Pipers as they put seven shots on goal and allowed only one shot.

“We started shaky this year but we’ve picked it up recently,” said sophomore midfielder Andy Rios.

The Pipers had started the season with three losses in four games against St. Scholastica, Dubuque and Viterbo, with a double overtime tie against UW-Platteville sandwiched between the Dubuque and Viterbo games. The Pipers won their first game of the year 1-0 against Grinnell and they showed that momentum in their game against the Cobbers.

Coach Alex Morawiecki, in his fourth year as head of the men’s soccer team, is having to work in a bunch of new talent into the roster this year.

“We originally had sixteen new players this year, but due to certain conflicts it ended up only being thirteen,” said Peter Griggs, first-year backup goalkeeper.

Despite the numerous new additions, the players aren’t worried too much about meshing with each other.

“We have a lot of camaraderie,” added Griggs. “We’re able to get behind coach’s ideas and we get along well.”

Hamline brought a varied attack to the field with three separate players hitting the score sheet. Trevor Tallaksen and Trevor Lewellen both scored their first collegiate goals in the first half and Stefan Kinsinger added the second goal of his Hamline career eight minutes into the second half.

According to the Hamline University athletics website, other significant firsts from this game include the first time since 2009 that Hamline has opened MIAC play with a win, the first time since 2009 that Hamline had scored three goals in a conference game and the first time the Pipers had beaten the Concordia men’s team since 2007.

The first half of the match was fairly quiet, with the teams trading near misses over a seven minute period about twenty minutes into the half. With just over fifteen minutes left in the first half, sophomore midfielder Trevor Tallaksen broke through and headed in Hamline’s first goal of the game. After a hard shot from senior forward Abbai Habte hit the goalpost, first-year midfielder Trevor Lewellen, who had subbed in just a few minutes earlier, finished off the rebound with 5:20 left in the half. The third and final goal belonged to first-year forward Stefan Kinsinger, knocking in his shot with 36:20 left in the half.

Despite scoring only one goal in the second half, it was still the better half for Hamline. They spent much less time in their own end, controlled play for large segments and tightened up defensively against several speedy Cobber players. The tight Hamline defense provided keeper Dean Isaacson an easy job in goal as he picked up his second consecutive shutout.

With the meat of the MIAC schedule coming up, Rios is looking forward to one game in particular.

“I’m looking forward to the Macalester game this year. We lost last year but I’m looking forward to it this year so we can try for a win.”

After a 3-1 loss at UW-Superior last Sunday, the Pipers return home for their second MIAC game of the year against Macalester. Game time is 1:00 pm this Saturday.