The men’s soccer team kicked off their 2006 season with a pair of strong performances at home in the Oberlin Classic last weekend. After making it to the conference tournament for the first time in Blake New’s coaching career, the Yeomen are focused on building off of that success and hopefully challenging for the league title and a potential NCAA berth.

With expectations high, Oberlin faced Lake Erie College on September 1 in their season opener. The Yeomen started the game strong, scoring early off of an assist from sophomore Kyle Taljan to first-year forward Skyler Dum. While Oberlin looked the better side in the first half, outshooting Lake Erie 6 to 2, they could not finish off their opponents, leaving the second half to have a nail-biting finish. Oberlin went on to win 1-0.

The second game of the round-robin tournament was held on Saturday, September 2 against Heidelberg College. The dreary September weather was coupled with an entertaining Oberlin performance that only lacked goals. The Yeomen dominated possession and outshot Heidelberg 19-5, with junior Sam Zackheim tallying six of them. At the end of the game Oberlin could only settle for a draw, leaving them with a win and a tie to start the season.

The Yeomen played at Mt. Union on Wednesday. After going up 1-0 off of a goal from Zackheim midway through the first half, Mt. Union responded shortly after with a wonder-strike. The Yeomen dominated the majority of the game, outshooting their opponents 18-10. Oberlin could not put the Purple Raiders away and the game finished at 1-1.

Oberlin is 1-0-2 overall and will travel to Anderson College in Indiana on Sunday.