Bees' Soccer season ends as one of the best

Nov. 18, 2004
By Tim Mushacio
Staff Writer

A season of highs and lows ended in heartache for the Fighting Bees men’s soccer team. They finished this year with an overall record of 15-9.

The team dropped three of its last four games to finish off the regular season. The Bees fell 6-2 in a key game against the eventual conference champions Grandview near the end of the regular season. Not only did they lose the game, but they would have to finish the season without All-Conference defender Brandon Knauss. The senior from Peoria, Ill. broke his right ankle and would have to watch the rest of his final season as a Bee from the sidelines.

“That was definitely not the way I wanted to go out. You don’t think about ending your senior year like this,” Knauss said. “But I had full confidence that guys like Jake Yarnall and Chad Rhoades would step it up the rest of the year.”

The team would bounce back to beat William Penn 4-1 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. They then lost a tough, emotional game to Augustana College 3-2 in double overtime. The Bees would lose another close one against Olivet Nazarene 2-1 in the season finale. They would go on to finish second in conference for the regular season.

The Bees would still have a shot at redemption in the Midwest Classic Conference tournament. They cruised through the first two games, as they trounced Waldorf 12-1 in the quarterfinal, and routed Mount Mercy 7-1 in the semifinal. A rematch with regular season champs Grandview was set for the tournament final. The Bees fell 4-1 with their lone goal coming from Ryan Davis.

This wasn’t the end of the Bees season. Based on their record and strength of schedule the Bees received an at-large bid for the NAIA Regional Tournament.

“We were all pretty excited to know about making the regional but nobody was surprised,” senior Robbie Mayfield said. “Making the regional the last two years it was pretty much expected for this team.”

The Bees squared off against rival Olivet Nazarene in the first round. Trailing 2-0 the Bees rallied back in the second half. Adam Trent scored the first goal to put them on the board. Then Ryan Davis tied it at two late in the game. The teams played to a stalemate through two overtimes, which then led to a penalty kick shootout to determine who would advance to the regional semi-final.

After another tie in the shootout at 3-3 the game was destined for sudden death penalty kicks. Olivet would outlast the Bees in sudden death winning the game and moving on to the next round. It was a brutal end to a great season.

“We faired much better in this regional game than we had in the last two years,” head coach Bud Grant said. “This one definitely leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, but we’ll get over it.”

Seniors Adam Trent, Robbie Mayfield, Brandon Knauss, and Junior Greg Lehman were all named to the MCC first team All-Conference. Second team All-Conference honors were awarded to Dustin Freeman, Rob Eckert, Chad Rhoades and Nick Rojas. Mayfield also shattered the school record for career goals by an astounding 12 goals. This year’s Bees squad is arguably the best that has played here at St. Ambrose.

“This is the third year in a row that we made the regional and before that we had only made it once,” Grant said. “We were ranked third in this year’s regional which was the highest we had ever been seeded.”

The Bees will graduate an extremely talented senior class. Trent, Mayfield, Knauss and Giles Looney will all be leaving. Grant felt Looney was one of the best wings he ever had.

“This is the greatest group of seniors that I have recruited and coached since I’ve been here,” Grant said. “We will definitely miss them.”

Despite those graduating seniors Grant is confident that next year the Bees can have the same success as this year. With a strong nucleus of seven juniors and experienced underclassmen the Bees should be back in the NAIA regional next fall.

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