Losing streak over, Blue wins 3-2

By Nick Kacher

For the Daily

The Michigan men's soccer team (0-3 Big Ten, 5-7 overall) got things started very early Sunday against Drury College. Less than two minutes into the Wolverines' 3-2 win, freshman Mike White put the ball into the back of the net off an assist from fellow freshmen Tom Gritter.

"Every game we are getting more and more familiar with each other and we are begin to play more as a single unit," Gritter said.

Gritter did not wait too long to strike again. In the 22nd minute Gritter struck the ball past the Drury goalie off of a pass from Ian Hirschfield.

"We had a really good start," Gritter said. "It was nice to start off and grab a big early lead."

When fellow freshmen Kevin Taylor scored off a double assist from White and Kevin Robinson, Michigan built up a strong 3-0 lead.

"We had a great overall team performance today," Michigan coach Steve Burns said. "One of our strengths today was we won the midfield battle, with strong play from Kevin Taylor and Brian Peters."

Drury cut into the lead before the first half was over and Michigan went into halftime with a 3-1 lead. When Drury's John Pedroli scored with 13 minutes left to make the score 3-2, Michigan had to step up the defense and make sure to not let the early lead they built slip away.

The Wolverines did not sit on their lead, but their game plan did involve staying in their defense a little more in the second half.

During the last 10 minutes of play the game started to get very physical, as Drury was desperate to tie the score. But the Michigan defense held tough and was able to walk away with the 3-2 victory.

"We have been playing real well recently, but the challenge is putting two good halves together," Burns said. "Today we created an environment to attack and score goals."

Michigan is in the middle of playing a tough Big Ten schedule, and it was nice for the team to play a nonconference game and grab a win.

"It feels good to win," Gritter said. "The entire team played great and the offense was able to get guys forward and have four or five players on every attack, and it showed in the results."

Michigan heads to Dayton for a game Friday before getting back into conference play.