Jan. 16, 2008

The 2007 men's soccer season ended 6-11-1 and 3-7 in Florida Sun Conference play. It began with a usual blend of anticipation and optimism sparked by an unusual team retreat. The team began the season even at 1-1-1 then a string of losses deflated the team. Optimism for next season returned as the young Bobcat team not featuring a single senior finished the year winning three of their last five games which featured four FSC opponents.

The Bobcats unique retreat took the team to Sarasota River State Park and into the wilderness. Coach Felix Mats objective was to prepare the Bobcats to take on everything together, whether it's a Northwood defender, an Edward Waters shot attempt or the alligators they saw on their early morning jogs.

The early morning jogs helped build stamina for the season, stamina the team would need to tie their season opener against the Bently Falcons. If ties do not normally excite you or often leave you feeling unsatisfied this one may have been the exception. The game was highlighted by the Bobcats constant uphill battle and eventual reward of their first goal of the season during the final 20 seconds.

The Bobcats would get their first win of the year as the offense clicked producing three goals and the defense stood strong preventing a goal against Clearwater Christian College in the team's third game.

The Bobcats opened the season with seven away games and played their home opener against Savannah College of Art and Design. Unfortunately for the Bobcats the team did not give the home crowd a good show losing 4-0. The loss was part of a losing streak which lasted six games.

Despite losing six straight the Bobcats still managed to play impressive soccer. The FSC recognized this and named Daniel De La Cruz defensive player of the week once and Stefan Peretz offensive player of the week once during the losing streak.

The Bobcats would put the breaks on their losing streak against Warner Southern winning 1-0 and would explode for their best offensive performance of the season in a 4-1 win against Florida College. Andres Amortegui was the star of the game for the Bobcats scoring one more goal than Florida College.

The Bobcats inspiring 3-2 finish to the season was highlighted by a huge 1-0 win over then No. 21 ranked SCAD. The win was evidence of the team's drastic improvement from the two teams' earlier meeting, which SCAD won 4-0. The game winning goal was scored by Jan Wiechman, he played well as a defender during the game making several plays that led to the shutout. In goal that day was Diego Villagos, it was one of his two shutout performances.

Leading the team in goals for the season was Stefan Pertz with five while Gabe Renteria led the team in assists with three. The Bobcats lose no players to graduation and should be a year wiser when they step onto the field in 2008.