Roughrider Madan Silva, attempts to gain control of the ball during the Roughriders game against Rose State on Tuesday, Sept. 1 on Roughrider Field. The Roughriders lost to Rose State 4-0. Photo by Steve Chapman
by Steve Chapman
Beginning of the season
The Crowder Roughriders men’s soccer team has won 6 of the 13 games it has played this fall. It’s been a rollercoaster for the team and its fans.
The Roughriders scored victory in an away game against Oklahoma Wesleyan, 2-1, on Aug. 15. The Roughriders were again victorious when they defeated Bacone on Roughrider Field on Aug. 22 with a score of 3-1.
The team was handed its first loss during the season opener in an away game against Coffeyville on Aug. 27, where they lost, 4-0.
On Aug. 29, the Roughriders charged back with a win against Northern Oklahoma, whom they beat with a score of 2-1. It was the first time in the soccer program’s entire history that Crowder had ever beaten Northern Oklahoma.
Taste of defeat
The Roughriders would lose again at their own Roughrider Field on Sept. 1 when they were defeated by Rose State College, 4-0. It was a particularly rough game, with the Roughriders being handed a red card and four yellow cards for rule violations during play.
“We got outmuscled,” Brad Smith, the Roughriders head soccer coach, said after the game. “We lost our composure a bit. I don’t think it’s anything unusual when you have 21 freshmen on the team.”
Smith also questioned some of the calls made by the officials refereeing the game. “I’m sure we were fouling; I don’t question we were fouling,” he said. “What I question is they were fouling too. But that’s their decision, not mine.”
The Roughriders lost again to Northwestern Kansas Technical College, 2-1, in an away game on Sept. 6, and again at home to Neosho Community College (NCC) in a game that was postponed from Sept. 8 due to weather. The game against NCC went into double-overtime, and the Roughriders only lost when the NCC scored a point in the end to bring the score to 1-0. Smith described that match as a “game of attrition.”
“We had seven players injured in that match that could not continue to play,” Smith said.
The Roughriders also lost 1-0 in an away game against Metropolitan Community College on Sept.15, and again to Northeastern Oklahoma Community College on Sept. 17 with a score of 5-0.
On the road back
The Roughriders charged back to victory on Sept. 19 with a 6-0 win over Heston College and won again in a game against Cowley County on Sept. 22, defeating them, 2-1.
On Sept. 26, the team suffered their seventh defeat when they lost in an away game against St. Louis Community College, 6-0.
The Roughriders next play East Central College on Saturday, Oct. 10. The game will take place at 7 p.m. on Roughrider Field.
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