The New School Narwhals gave their all during an intense, defense-heavy match against the Lehman Lightning, of Lehman College, this weekend.
The Lehman Lightning won with a final score of 4-1. This was a heavy blow for The Narwhals, dropping their season record to 2-4-1, with two wins, four losses and one tie.
By scoring the first goal ten minutes in, the Lightning set the tone of the game. After their first goal, the Lightning scored another with two minutes left in the first half, and two more goals throughout the second half of the game.
Narwhal’s defensive player Henry Otto-Skjoldebrand scored the team’s only goal with one minute left in the first half.
For the majority of the game, the Lightning kept possession of the ball, forcing the Narwhals to focus on defense and rely heavily on their goalkeeper, senior Eric Wade. Wade made nine saves throughout the game.
“They [The Lehman Lightning] were an aggressive team,” said Narwhals defensive right back Joey Atkins. “Probably the best team we’ve played so far. We [Lehman and The New School] were all playing for a lot of people; we were playing for our manager and playing for the seniors, so no one wanted to lose, which made for an aggressive game.”
After a few injuries, four shots on goal, nine saves and two yellow cards, Narwhals coach George Ellis said that there were many factors to the loss, but that there were still good moments in the game.
“There were definitely good spells within the game, that through training, you could see translated on the field, there just weren’t enough of them,” said Ellis. According to Ellis, the loss could be contributed to the Lightning’s offensive plays, the Narwhal’s loss of concentration or individual errors.
Coach Ellis was proud of the team this season despite the loss and recognized that the team has come a long way, despite the circumstances.
Ellis is a new coach for the Narwhals, having taken over the team this semester, and the team had a lot of new players join in the fall. “It was exciting to come into that and there was a lot of enjoyment in the season – a lot of big wins,” said Ellis, “It was good to see the transition from there to now.”
The team is hopeful for the upcoming season.
Only two players are graduating this year so Elis expects that the team won’t change much next season, but he hopes to see more wins.
“It’s always disappointing to go out on a loss, especially when it’s not a close loss, but there’s a lot of good things to point to in the future,” said Wade.
This was the last game for Narwhal’s seniors Eric Wade and Ashim Joshi, who graduate in the spring. Both Wade and Joshi have been key players since the team’s formation in 2013.
“We started off with 10 people, and now 50 to 60 people are coming to tryouts at the beginning of the season,” said Joshi.
Joshi is relinquishing his position as team captain, and is excited to see where the team goes from here. “Now it’s up to these guys to take it further. It was run by the students and it will always be run by the students,” said Joshi.
As a final farewell to the teammates that they leave behind, Wade and Joshi expressed their hope that the players continue enjoying the sport.
“We hope that you guys just have fun playing football, enjoy football, and carry on the sport in The New School,” Joshi said.