The Morrisville State men’s soccer team lost their last three matches to give them an overall record of 4-4-0. Their last win was a 2-1 victory at SUNY Potsdam on Sept. 15.           

“We certainly want to do our best,” said head coach Tom Daviau, whose Mustangs  netted 19 goals in their first five games while holding their opponents to only 8. Now in his fifth season with the team, Daviau said the Mustangs’ move from the Junior College conference to NCAA Division III has been “much more challenging” but that he counts on the leadership of the team’s captains and veteran players.

 “This is probably the best team I’ve played with,” said Andrey Tomoroska, a junior who starts on defense and is one of the team’s three captains. “We have a lot of options.” Tomoroska said he’s impressed with the efforts of everyone on the team. His enthusiasm is shared by others.

“After the first one (goal),” said midfielder Marcus Figaro, “the team just gets hungry.” Figaro is a sophomore from Queens, NY who said he’s enjoying his first year playing for the Mustangs.

Freshman forward Shaman Mason has been kicking his way to the top of the stat tables with 9 goals, the most on the team, and 3 assists. Tomoroska said it’s the hard work he sees in many freshmen players that helps keep him motivated. “We had an early problem with teamwork,” he said, “but now we all try to watch out for everyone else and it’s been working.”

Daviau agrees that the best way for his team to proceed is to just keep working hard on the field. “You spend time watching the stats and that’s when ours start to drop,” he said. “We just want to get out there and play.”

Alhough the Mustangs have started out very strong and may well finish the season with an impressive record, they will not be able to play in the SUNYAC tournament later this year because of the team’s probationary status, a four-year mandate for any team that switches conferences. “We can’t get into the playoffs and it kind of sucks,” said Tomoroska. He said it’s not really fair for players who only have a season or two left.

“Those are the rules and you have to go by them,” said Daviau who also expressed distaste at the team’s state of conference-purgatory. “We won’t officially be a SUNYAC member until 2009,” he said.

About the only thing team members openly admit needs a lot more improvement is game attendance. “I’d like to see bigger crowds,” said Figaro, “we have great games and everyone brings something to the table.”

Tomoroska, who said his team shows support for other athletic teams as much as possible, agreed with Figaro’s assessment. “The more fans we get,” he said, “the better we play.”

The Mustangs dropped Wednesday's game to Keuka College, 3-0. On Friday they traveled to Oswego State, losing 4-0. Yesterday's much-anticipated game at Cortland State ended with a 6-2 loss.