The Hamline men’s soccer team (3-5-2, 2-1-1 MIAC) has started to make some noise in this year’s MIAC playoff race despite facing long odds. After a 1-3 loss to MIAC leaders St. Olaf (5-5, 4-1 MIAC) last Tuesday Sep. 29, the Pipers won a huge game against third-place St. Thomas (7-3, 3-2 MIAC) 2-1 last Saturday.

In the opening game of a sports-filled Homecoming Saturday around the Hamline campus, the Pipers beat St. Thomas on the strength of goals from sophomore midfielder Trevor Tallaksen and senior forward Abbai Habte.

Tallaksen knocked in the equalizer 31:33 into the first half after St. Thomas scored their goal just over two minutes into the match. Habte’s game-winner came with just over 15 minutes left in the second half and the Pipers held on from there.

Junior midfielder Liam Whitworth was pleased with the outcome.

“It’s always a great feeling, getting a win for the team. It’s important for MIAC play for sure and it’s always nice to beat a rival like St. Thomas,” he said.

The team has been priding itself on its defense this year, and had another strong effort on Saturday.

“We’ve been very good on the defensive side of things in most matches,” said head coach Alex Morawiecki.

The offense has continued to step up for the men, with the team having scored a goal in every game so far and seven during four conference games to this date.

Senior captain Abbai Habte is satisfied with the results of conference play so far.

“We started off with a win in the conference [against Concordia], tied the second game [against Macalester] and performed well against some of the best teams in our conference, so it’s going pretty well,” he said.

The improving results against the class of the MIAC has Morawiecki pleased but looking for more.

“I think each game we’ve improved in certain areas. I think our consistency is continuing to grow as a pretty young group with a number of new players and that’s a big key for us,” he said. “We’ve showed where we can be very, very good in certain moments, it’s just becoming more consistent throughout the entire ninety minutes of a match. And now entering league play, we’re off to a good start, a positive start and the guys are continuing to grow each day.”

Like his coach, Habte sees a need to focus on consistency as the Pipers move through the rest of conference play.

“We’ve had trouble being unable to perform for a whole ninety minutes. We’ll have a good session of forty-five minutes and then not so good session the next forty-five minutes,” he said. “We have to learn how to play for a full ninety minutes to be able to reach our goals and I think that’s what we’re going to do this year: make the playoffs.”

Whitworth likes the Pipers chances as they move into the third week of MIAC play, especially after the St. Thomas victory.

“Beating St. Thomas gives us a lot of momentum for the rest of the season and I’m pretty confident we can move forward and definitely get a playoff berth this year,” he said. “Everyone likes to look down on Hamline and we’re here to show that we can actually make noise this year in the MIAC, so every game is a big game for us,” he said.

Morawiecki maintains his team has a few advantages to other MIAC programs this year.

“This group has a really humble approach to how they work. They have a great team attitude, put in a great team effort, and we talk every day about being willing to out-prepare opponents, staying together when things get rough and overall I think the group has really good camaraderie with strong leadership. So when you mix all those components together, I think we have what it takes to be in that top six,” he said.

The men’s team starts the home stretch of their MIAC schedule this Saturday, Oct. 10 at St. Mary’s (3-4-2, 0-2-2 MIAC) at 7 pm.