Nearly halfway through Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) play, the soccer teams at John Brown University (JBU) suffered their first conference losses at home, after several great performances on the road.
The end of September and the first week of October featured multiple tough matchups that looked to test both teams and their spot among the conference’s elite. After winning their SAC opening matches over Oklahoma Panhandle State, the Golden Eagles traveled to Plainview, TX, to face Wayland Baptist. There, the men’s soccer team took a 3-0 win against their hosts, with goals from Oscar Carballo, Alejandro Ramirez and Jacob Zamarron. The Wayland Baptist Pioneers sent eight shots to goalkeeper Adam Tebbs, but all were saved by Tebbs, securing him a career-high in saves. The JBU women were also victorious. Goals from Pam Seiler and Lauren Walter secured the 3-0 win, in a match where the Golden Eagles dominated the ball in both periods.
On Oct. 4, the Golden Eagles faced another test on the road against Southwestern Christian. The women’s team started the double-header with a 3-0 victory. At the 30-minute mark, Bella Graber scored the first goal of the match and her first one of the season. Six minutes later, Gifte Pavatt doubled the team’s lead with a header, assisted by Renny Buchanan. This was also Pavatt’s first goal of the season. The second half was controlled by John Brown, with 11 shots to the opposition keeper. Rachael Stone scored her first career collegiate goal with seven minutes left in the game.
The second match of the day started with a goal by Southwestern Christian just three minutes into the first half. Despite that, the Golden Eagles easily doubled their rival’s score with goals by Alejandro Ramirez and Ethan Stockdale. The JBU men were able to keep their lead intact for the vast majority of the second half. However, with only two seconds left to play, a goal from Jason Logan allowed Southwestern Christian to end the game with a 2-2 draw.
Three matches into their conference slate, the men’s soccer team stood undefeated with a 6-0-3 record, tying the 1991 program as the only two teams in program history to begin a season undefeated through the first nine games. The women’s team, on the other hand, stood at 7-3-0, winning their first three SAC matches.
The Golden Eagles returned to play at Alumni Field during Homecoming weekend against the Science & Arts Drovers. It was an intense match that remained tied throughout most of its duration. However, a goal from USAO midfielder Avery Walker with only 27 seconds remaining resulted in the Drovers snagging a road win at JBU’s expense, handing the JBU women their first conference loss of the season. The men’s match remained scoreless for over 70 minutes, but the Golden Eagles collapsed defensively late, as the Drovers managed to score three goals in the last 20 minutes of play, with two coming from Devon Charles, to end the JBU men’s undefeated run.
Following their match, JBU head women’s soccer coach Kathleen Paulsen stated that, despite the loss, she was still really pleased with her team’s performance. “When I evaluate a game, I say ‘are we who we want to be?’ Greedy, tough, hardworking, – all of these things. I let results sit for a little bit and evaluate … and I felt like we were who we wanted to be,” said Paulsen.
JBU head men’s soccer coach Chris Cole, on the other hand, felt the program, as a whole, performed poorly. “We were poor. We just played poorly. For the quality of this team, it was a surprise. It’s not just on the players. It’s on all of us,” Cole said. “One of the challenges for all of us is to look at ourselves and take ownership of what happened, and move forward,” he added.
Despite the loss, Cole remained positive and took the outcome as a learning opportunity. “This is a very good team. It’s still a young team, but it has really quality players. What I fully expect is a great response, and that we see the team that is JBU soccer play this year in the rest of our matches,” he said.
Finally, Cole shared his strategy to raise his team’s spirit up as they prepared for their next game. “I think mentally you have to recalibrate. As a team, there is a process of recalibration to come back to our purpose, to think about who we are, how do we play … and so that’s been what we have been working through this week,” Cole said.
The Golden Eagles return to Alumni Field on Saturday, Oct. 15, to face Oklahoma City for another conference double-header. The women’s match will start at 1:00 p.m., followed by the men’s match at 3:00 p.m. Both can be streamed live on the SAC Sports Network, the broadcasting home of JBU athletics.
Photo Courtesy of Josie Strunk / JBU Athletics Communications
