By Jesse Baker
Lamp staff
SPRINGFIELD — Lincoln Land’s soccer program has been in a state of flux, but some new faces hope to revitalize the program and end the season strong.
Two years ago, the college board considered cutting soccer because of performance issues by student-athletes in the program. Since then, Peter Christofilakos has taken over as the head coach, and most of the team members are new.
“Our team chemistry has just been a bit off so far this year,” said Eli Hopkins, a center midfielder.
“This is completely understandable”, agreed Brock Tober, a forward.
“We have nine new freshmen on the team this year,” Tober said. “And we plan to do more pattern games in practice to help them and the rest of the team become more familiar with each other.”
With six games, this season has not been exactly as planned. The Loggers hold a record of one win, one tie and four losses.
But that record doesn’t tell the full story.
In all but one game, the Loggers were either in a winning position or holding the game at level scores; not including the starting score of zero to zero.
So, the soccer team has indeed been in all their games with a chance to win, but have been unfortunate not to win.
Both Hopkins and Tober both said they look forward to the rematches against Heartland Community College, Parkland College, Lincoln College and other conference opponents.
The team will be better prepared and more experienced further down the road in the season, the pair stated.
While the men’s soccer team might be experiencing a tough start, the players look to improve and build around a young core and hope to come together to have a successful season by the end
Jesse Baker can be reached at [email protected].
