While senior James Johnson doesn’t dare underestimate the talent of the teams the Duhawks will face this weekend, he believes his team will prevail.

“We know that every team we play this time of year is going to be talented and well-organized,” he said. “Still, part of our success is that we always believe that we can win.”

And win they can. Loras is two wins away from a third-consecutive berth into the Final Four of the NCAA Division III Championships. The Duhawks again will host its own sectional at the Rock Bowl beginning Saturday after winning their first- and second-round games of the tournament over the weekend.

Loras beat Webster, 3-1, on Saturday and Macalester, 2-0, on Sunday at the Rock Bowl.

“We have big goals, but we try to take it one game at a time and we definitely want to see these guys meet those goals, so it’s a great sense of accomplishment every game we win,” said Coach Dan Rothert. “Especially at the NCAA Championships, where every team expects to win, so it’s do-or-die time. Every team we play this far into it is a conference champion, so it is the best competition available. We definitely celebrate every victory.”

Rothert said the match against Macalester was the more nerve-racking of the weekend showdowns. He said he was a little worried to go into halftime with a scoreless tie.

“Our season could have been over,” he said. “We had a discussion at halftime, where we talked about how it could be our last game at home this year, and for seniors it could be their last home game ever. We were all scared that this could go a different way if we don’t pick it up. It was a wake-up call, and our guys responded and came out and played a great second half and scored two goals.”

Clearly showing their coach they had listened at halftime, junior Miguel Bonilla scored the first goal against Macalester, and junior Thomas Jennings celebrated his birthday with his first goal of the season.

“The soccer players on Chestnut Street, where we live, have been helping me out and keeping my morale up,” Jennings said. “They always make sure I’m not too hard on myself. Scoring that goal on Sunday was awesome; it’s the best feeling in the world. It was a halfway decent birthday present, I guess you could say.”

Bonilla also scored a goal on Saturday, while senior Matt Splittgerber and junior Tom Strumpf also scored during the 3-1 opening-round victory over Webster. The outcome of the Webster match was decided early, but the 11 seniors on the team relished every moment of it, Johnson said.

“We know it could be our last time playing competitive soccer. Obviously we want to win every game and prolong our season as long as possible.”

But Johnson also said that the soccer season can be draining, especially when the team advances as far as it has over the past four seasons.

“There will certainly be some relief after the season,” he said. “The soccer season is time-consuming and physically demanding, and we will be ready for a rest when the time comes. But rest will come eventually. In the meantime, this team has some unfinished business to attend to.”

Part of the unfinished business to which he is referring is Saturday’s match against Dominican University. Senior Ian O’Connor, sizes up their opponent.

“We did beat them last year, 1-0, but they have a lot of skilled players that can give us problems, and their formation is something we’re going to have to adapt to.”

“Our team is anything but nervous for big games,” Johnson said. “Every player on our team came to Loras College to play in the type of games we had this weekend. We have all played soccer our whole lives, and playing in big games is what we live for.”

This year, there were an unusually high number of injuries, all of which were season-ending. There were four torn ACL’s and one torn Achilles heel. The players it affected were seniors Tyler Hoyt and Justin McCord, sophomore Andy Filipiak, and juniors Donald St. George and Matthew Lamale. As if pursuing a national championship isn’t hard enough, fate took five starters away from the Duhawks.

But Johnson rightly thinks that the team has been doing a great job working against the misfortune.
“These key injuries were a hurdle for the team, but we have players waiting in the wings for their chance to shine,” he said. “That was apparent this weekend, as former substitutes stepped up big time.”

Johnson also believes that the Duhawks’ success in the postseason tournament in previous years will give the team the edge it needs to win that elusive national title.

“Our team is anything but nervous for big games,” Johnson said. “Every player on our team came to Loras College to play in the type of games we had this weekend. We have all played soccer our whole lives, and playing in big games is what we live for.”