Soccer nets, big results this spring

Xavier men's soccer team held its own while facing the defending national champions this past weekend. The Musketeers moved to 1-1-2 on the spring season after tying Akron 2-2 on Saturday. The men's team got strong performances from freshman Will Walker and sophomore Justin Marshall. 

"Overall, today's result is really a feather in our cap. We were able to hang around such a good team and get a draw," head coach Andy Fleming said. 

The Musketeers opened the scoring when Walker, who joined the team during the winter, netted a shot from fifteen yards out. Freshman Matt Walker, Will's brother, assisted the goal off the post that came in the second minute of action. Akron responded in the 44th minute when the Zips' Darron Mattocks scored amidst a scrum in front of the goal. Akron scored once more in the 48th minute after converting on a penalty kick. 

The game remained 2-1 until the closing minutes of the game. With exactly one minute of action left, Will Walker got behind the Akron defense and was able to put a 12 yard shot past the keeper to knot things up at 2-2. Fleming was pleased with the set-up and finish on both of Xavier's goals. 

"We had good sequences on both of our goals after having several chances last week against Butler," Fleming said. 

The Musketeers finished with six total shots and three shots on goal. Will Walker finished with all three of Xavier's shots on goal. Akron tallied 16 shots while putting eight of those on net. Marshall, who was playing in his first game of the spring, saved six shots for Xavier. 

The Musketeers returned to action on April 19 against the Dayton Dutch Lions. The men tied the club team 3-3 behind two penalty kicks from sophomore Luke Spencer and a 78th minute goal from sophomore Ed Morley.  

Despite acknowledging that the team has grown over the past few weeks, Fleming still sees room for improvement for the Musketeers, the defending Atlantic 10 Tournament champions. 

"We need to play a complete game and avoid some of the defensive and technical breakdowns from the past two weeks," Fleming said.

The men's soccer team has one final spring game before beginning their title defense. 

"This spring we have learned the value of remaining honest, disciplined, and playing as a team," Fleming said.