Oakland University Athletics

Oakland Men’s Soccer Wraps Up Another Successful Season

With a 3-0 shutout of IUPUI to close out the 2005 regular season, the Oakland University men’s soccer team secured its fifth Mid-Continent Conference championship with a 5-1 league scorecard, finishing 10-9-0 overall. The Golden Grizzlies were once again matched up against some of the toughest non-conference competition and the young team responded well, gaining wins over instate rivals Michigan and Michigan State as well as #18 Cincinnati.

“We knew we were going to be a young team this year with a lot of freshmen starting,” head coach Gary Parsons explained, “but I think we held up well from that standpoint. We started off playing some tough teams, so we found we had to dig ourselves out of a hole early on, but we got better as we went on.”

Senior Jeff Wiese

That 0-4 hole to start the season was not an easy pill to swallow, but out of that came some well-deserved recognition for the Golden Grizzlies. Senior keeper Jeff Wiese (Omaha, Neb.), who was named one of the nation’s top returning goalkeepers by College Soccer News, earned all-tournament honors at Cal State-Northridge’s Matador Soccer Invitational after collecting 15 saves for the weekend. The following weekend, senior Chris Edwards (Glasgow, Scotland) and rookie Doron Drai (Natanya, Israel) were named to the all-tourney team at Wisconsin’s Panther Invitational. Edwards scored the lone goal for the Golden Grizzlies in the tournament.

Oakland opened the home portion of its schedule with a showdown against the rival Wolverines that saw a record crowd at the OU Soccer Field. With the match knotted at one goal apiece, freshman Ben Gearhart (Rochester, Mich.) netted the game-winner late in the second to help give Oakland its first victory of the season. The win ignited a flame in the Golden Grizzlies that carried over into the next week when OU claimed a 2-1 victory over Detroit. Brandon Felker (Waterford, Mich.) and Wiese were each named Mid-Con Players of the Week for their efforts in helping Oakland to a 2-0 week.

Akron was next to visit Rochester and the Black and Gold knew their hands were full with the seventh-ranked Zips on their turf. A strong defensive effort by Oakland fell just short Sept. 25 as Akron managed to score on the Golden Grizzlies early in the second period and held on for the win.

The Golden Grizzlies hit the road next, taking on Western Illinois and Michigan State. Oakland opened Mid-Con action with a 3-1 victory over the Leathernecks then stunned the Spartans in Lansing with a 1-0 shutout of the Big Ten foe on a Brady Vance (Traverse City, Mich.) goal. Valparaiso was the first conference opponent to visit OU and the Crusaders got a lucky bounce off an Oakland defender to score and hand the Golden Grizzlies a 1-0 setback – the team’s lone Mid-Con loss of the season.

Oakland rebounded with another pair of wins, including downing No. 18 Cincinnati on the road and wiping out Centenary 2-0 in Shreveport. Freshman Wade Allan (Shelby Township, Mich.) was honored by the Mid-Con for his performance during the week, scoring a goal in OU’s win over the bearcats, while Wiese earned his second Player of the Week nod for deflecting five shots and allowing just one goal against UC. One last Big Ten opponent awaited the Golden Grizzlies as the squad headed to Columbus for a match-up with Ohio State. Allan’s goal late in the second half got the Grizzlies within one, but time ran out on OU’s comeback effort and OSU held on for a 3-2 win.

Senior Chris Edwards

Again, Oakland picked up consecutive wins following a loss, defeating Oral Roberts 2-1 at home and blanking UMKC 1-0 in Kansas City.  The team’s victory over the Golden Eagles put Oakland in a tie for first in the league and Drai earned Player of the Week accolades for his efforts. The freshman helped OU knock Oral Roberts out of the ranks of the unbeaten, netting the game-winner mid-way through the second stanza.

Oakland had a chance to complete its sweep of instate rivals Nov. 1, but Western Michigan spoiled the opportunity with a 1-0 defeat of the Golden Grizzlies on the OU pitch. The seniors were more determined than ever to go out on top and the Black and Gold shut out IUPUI 3-0 in Oakland’s final contest heading into the conference tournament. Fittingly, Edwards scored a hat trick for the win in his last game at OU, earning him Mid-Con offensive MVP honors for the week.

After the weekend games, Oakland learned it had earned the regular-season title outright and secured the top seed in the league tournament. Also a shot in the arm for the Grizzlies, five players were named to the all-conference squad. Wiese, Edwards and Adam Brent (Rochester, Mich.) were named to the first team, while Vance and Wes Allen (Austin, Texas) graced the second team list. Perhaps more impressively, for the second year in a row Wiese was voted the Mid-Continent Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Parsons was also voted by his peers voted as the Mid-Con Coach of the Year for the first time since joining the conference.

Valparaiso was paired with Oakland in the semifinals and the Golden Grizzlies toppled the fourth-place Crusaders 4-2. Gearhart scored twice for OU, while Edwards netted the game-winner in the 60^th minute to propel the Grizzlies to the title match versus 2004 champion Western Illinois. An epic battle ensued on the field in Kansas City. Down 3-0 heading into the second period, Oakland mounted an incredible comeback to tie the game and force overtime. Edwards scored the first goal and Allan tacked on two more to knot things up. OU was down two men to end the game and the Leathernecks finally managed to take advantage at the 96:01 mark when WIU found the upper right corner of the net, stripping the Grizzlies of their NCAA Tournament hopes.

“We accomplished winning the regular-season league title, which is always a goal,” Parsons said. “However, we played poorly in the championship game and had to dig ourselves out of a hole. Then getting the two red cards for tackles is something I hadn’t seen all season, so we played hard with nine men.”

Junior Brady Vance

In addition to Edwards and Wiese, Felker and Danny Ng (Randolph, Mass.) wrapped up their careers at Oakland during the 2005 season. Wiese raked in quite a list of honors throughout his career, making him one of the best athletes in OU soccer history as well as one of the best keepers in the region. He is the 10th OU player to make the NSCAA all-region list at least three times and was one of the first two to earn All-Mid-Con honors all four years announced in November. During his tenure, he was additionally the 2002 Newcomer of the Year, an eight-time Defensive Player of the Week, two-time Academic All-Conference selection and three-time Golden Grizzly Excellence in Academics award winner. He was also named to the NSCAA/adidas Men’s Scholar All-American first team in 2003 and is on several Mid-Con career and single-season lists.

For the second year in a row Edwards made the all-region team. The striker has been no stranger to earning accolades throughout his career. In November, the senior forward joined Wiese as the only other Golden Grizzly to earn all-conference honors all four years. Edwards has been one of OU’s most prolific scorers, tallying 36 goals during his tenure and racking up 78 points. He finished his career listed in the top 20 in the conference in career shots, goals and points. Edwards was a five-time Mid-Con Player of the Week and was additionally selected to the league’s all-tournament team in 2002. He has also been on the Academic All-Conference team and a Golden Grizzly Excellence in Academics honoree.

“You’re always concerned when you lose good players,” Parsons commented, “but that’s part of the process. Your new players have to come in and step up and that’s when you find out if you have other good players to rely on. We’re certainly sorry to lose these guys, but we’ve got to have confidence in our other players coming up and confidence in our recruits. With all of our young talent we had this year, adjusting won’t be as difficult next fall.”

Experience is the name of the game and Oakland has plenty of it. The Golden Grizzlies had as many as five freshmen starting on a regular basis in 2005 and return a solid core of seasoned veterans. Add to that a wealth of incoming talent and the Grizzlies will have their sights set on nothing short of another conference championship and a return trip to the NCAA’s.