ed the first half of their Sept. 22 game against Virginia Wesleyan with a tough penalty goal scored against them. Virginia Wesleyan’s Shaun Brooks, ‘20, scored with a minute left in the first half, leaving the Generals eager to pick up the pace.

The men have had a tough start to the season.

“We’ve had a rough start, we lost to some good teams, so we weren’t feeling too bad,” said Dylan Ritch, ‘19, who scored his first two goals of the season. “Then we had one really bad game that we lost, but now we are coming back with an overtime win and now, this win. We feel like we are getting back up to where we are planning on being.”

Despite a tough start to the season, the team refused to let the Marlins tear them down.

Both Ritch and Danny Tran, ‘21, scored their first goals on the season and delivered three points in total to the team for a final score of 4-1.

“Honestly, it’s a big relief. Playing striker, I’m supposed to score some goals, so it’s just a big relief,” Ritch said.

The win for the team was also a big relief, as they got back to focusing on the simple things in the field.

“Earlier in the first couple games we could not do the simple things so we try to go back to basics and go back to the simple play,” Tran said.

It is all about passing and moving in a way that makes it hard for the offensive team to keep track of the boys coming across the field.

“Now I get to focus on playing soccer instead of chasing goals,” Tran said.

With an average of 2.00 goals per game and .169 shot percentage, the boys continued to take shots on goal throughout the second half of the game.

Ritch said the second half of the game is the type of play the Generals are striving for in terms of communication and footwork.

Even with 20 seconds left in the second half, the men continued to work on their communication and passing skills, a promising display for the rest of the season and conference play in the ODACs.