Making the goal

The stakes were set incredibly high for the Washington men's soccer team this season. With the return of the 2006 Pac-10 Player of the Year, senior forward Kevin Forrest, in tandem with senior forward Ely Allen, who was named this year's co-Pac-10 Player of the Year, the Huskies had big ambitions.

Last season ended in the second round during a bittersweet NCAA championship run. This year's team hoped for a better outcome.

"We wanted to be the team to make the push to take it a little further this year," redshirt sophomore defender Taylor Cochran said.

As motivated as they were, the team that was ranked as high as 17th nationally during the preseason fell victim to the same fate this year against UC Santa Barbara in the second round of playoffs.

"Our season started out well and then we dipped," junior midfielder and co-captain George John said.

Part of the struggles the team encountered came with the loss of key players due to injury, like Forrest and sophomore goalkeeper Rylan Hawkins.

As a result, the team was forced to rely on its underclassmen for the duration of the season and they did not disappoint.

During the first round playoff game against the University of Portland, the Huskies "were looking to freshmen to win the game for us," Washington coach Dean Wurzberger said.

But from the outside looking in, it was tough to notice a change.

"They didn't really play like freshmen," Cochran said. "They kept a high level of play pretty much throughout."

The freshmen didn't do this all on their own, though. Each of the upperclassmen served as a role model for the newcomers both on and off the field.

Allen, Cochran and John were all named by the freshmen as role models on the team, and justifiably so.

"George is really passionate," freshman Jamie Finch explained. "He's just always trying his hardest. He's a great player."

Going along with this notion, John has just one thing in mind for next season.

"We've been saying this for three years now [HTML_REMOVED] we want to do something where we'd make an impact on the school and stand out as a soccer program. We're not a team to be taken lightly," John said. "I would like to be the pride of Washington."

Although the team has consistently done well in the past, they aren't given as much support as they would like.

During their last game in Harder Stadium at UCSB, more than 10,000 Gaucho fans showed up in support of their team against the UW. Only a few hundred come out to Washington's home matches.

But according to Cochran, the team must do better if it expects a stronger fan showing.

"We talk about building a fan base at home, but that has got to start with us winning at home first," he said.

Husky fans should have plenty to look forward to next season though, as the Huskies are once again fired up and ready to take the Washington soccer program to the next level.

"I want to bring home some hardware so people recognize the team," John said.

During this interim period, the players will be taking some time off and get a chance to clear their heads.

"For me personally, I kind of like to focus on other things," Cochran explained. "Get caught up on school, classes that you've been missing, and obviously still stay in shape, but step away from soccer a little bit."

The team will resume training in a few short weeks with a fresh focus in mind.

"I'm going to try to get the team together and try to work harder than I have in any of the past seasons," John said.

The men of the Washington soccer program are hungry for a long NCAA tournament run this season and are willing to do whatever it takes. They just hope the Husky faithful will be there to witness the action.

[Reach reporter Sheena Nguyen at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]