By Chris Butler
In their first year, three seasons ago, the Cougar men’s soccer team looked like a new organization, posting a 3-11-4 record, good for sixth place in the UMAC. But head coach Christian DeVries knew he has something special in the O’Connor brothers—Justin and Patrick.
The next season, the O’Connors recruited some of their friends to UMM: forward Brent Diggs, defender Dana Veth, and midfielder Kelsey Duerr, and pretty soon DeVries had a formidable roster of talent on his hands.
Steadily, the Cougars improved, finishing third in 2007, second in 2008, and this season all alone in first place, UMAC champions, after an 8-1 shallacking of Presentation College.
The win improved the Cougars 2009 record to 15-4, their best ever.
This was the last regular season game for the O’Connors, Diggs, Duerr , Veth and David Reich, who all played minutes this afternoon.
Patrick O’Connor (2 goals, 1 assist), Diggs (2 goals, 1 assist) and Duerr (1 goal) all contributed points to the win while Justin O’Connor and Veth kept the Saints’ offense in check all afternoon.
An emotional DeVries had only praise for his seniors this afternoon.
“I can’t say enough for what they’ve done and where they’ve gotten us and what they’ve established for UMM soccer and where we’re going to go from here.”
Where the Cougars will go now is the UMAC tournament where they will host both rounds next week. On Tuesday, UMM hosts Northwestern College (7-13-1) at 2 p.m. on Cougar Soccer Field. The Cougars have already defeated Northwestern twice this season: 5-0 in Morris on September 25, and 1-0 on October 10 in Minneapolis.