Men’s soccer celebrates senior night with a win

The FMU men’s soccer team wrapped up their senior night with a big win crushing Shaw University 4-0 in a non-conference game on Oct. 21 at 6 p.m.

After this win, the Patriots are ranked 9-2-1 overall.

Sophomore forward Sidney Warden scored the first goal of the game and sent the crowd wild. He gave the team the momentum they needed to keep playing hard.

Following Warden, sophomore midfielder Jafet Santiago scored the second goal of the game. Shaw’s defense locked in on Santiago, but they were no match for him, as he broke through the defense repeatedly.

Sophomore forward Javier Bello scored two goals giving the Patriots a four-point lead.

“It felt so good being able to help my team get the win,” Bello said.

Bello leads the team in goals with five goals this season.

Sophomore midfielder Sam Pollard, Warden, sophomore forward Alvaro Zamora and freshman midfielder Carlos Alonso Martinez all had one assist apiece.

The team had 17 shots for the entire game, two saves and nine corner kicks.

The Patriots started off a little slow in the first half of the game, but they quickly adjusted to Shaw’s defense and started to really cause trouble for Shaw’s offense.

After the game, senior Travis Cooke was given a plaque for the hard work and dedication he has put into the team.

As the only senior on the team, Cooke has taken pride in being a team leader and sharing his inspiration and knowledge.

“I’d like to think I have a lot of experience in college soccer,” Cooke said. “With most of my teammates being from overseas and not having played college soccer before, I like to introduce them to new ideas on and off the court.”

This year the team brought in 15 new players, most of them non-English speakers who are still learning the language. With the majority of the team speaking different languages, Head Coach Rincon has to be more outspoken and stress the importance of communication.

“It just takes time,” Rincon said. “They have to learn the language over time.”

Although there is a language barrier, the team didn’t let that stop them from communicating on the field.

“I’m proud of my teammates,” Cooke said.  “They have all done really well adjusting and working through the language barrier.”

During the game, Rincon put in some of the new players that do not normally play.

“Having played four games in the past ten days and traveling a lot, sometimes it can be tiring on the body,” Cooke said. “So coach uses the bench to relieve some of the players with heavy legs.”

Rincon was proud of his team and the way that they kept playing hard before they scored.

“That’s what we want,” Rincon said. “We want to create good soccer.”