By Patrick Taylor Sports Editor
Men's Soccer
Congratulations to the Men's Soccer team for winning the MAAC Championship and advancing to their third straight NCAA Tournament.
This year was a tough one with a lot of bumps along the way, but the team somehow achieved success.
I'm sure we all would have liked it better if they just waltzed through league play and non-confernce play, but sometimes you have to battle your way through, and that's what the Hounds did.
One thing that worries me though is our opponent in the NCAA Tournament. There's a very good chance that Loyola will play a top five team, including in-state foe Maryland.
For those of you who weren't here in 2007, or for those of you that didn't make it to the Loyola - Maryland game at Maryland, it was absolute insanity.
The Hounds were represented in the stands by hundreds of Loyola students who made the trek to Maryland by bus or by their own means, and Loyola battled to the death, losing in penalty kick's after keeping one of the most potent offenses in the nation to a scoreless draw through regulation and stoppage time.
In all honesty though, I do wish that Loyola plays Maryland in order to avenge what happened in 2007. I truly feel like this is a Loyola team that's underrated and can do a lot of damage in the tournament.
Fanship
Well done to all of the fans that made it out to the Men's Basketball opener against Vermont on Friday night.
Coach Patsos and the players were all enthralled by the amount of support from the Loyola community, and it helped boost their game.
I know I was a little bit worried about how the basketball game would turn out after some poor fan performances during last year's season, but it turns out that I had no reason to worry whatsoever.
The crowd was alive from the beginning and fed off of great play from Brett Harvey and Anthony Winbush, and they fed off of the fans cheering.
One thing I will say, however, is that one chant does not fit with our program at all, and it's, "We are LU." Seriously? We aren't Penn State or a school with thousands and thousands of people, so the chant's a bit weak.
Besides that though, it was a great showing from the Loyola community, and one that I hope is replicated at games throughout the season.
Ruggers
On Saturday, the Loyola ruggers faced off against Salisbury in a hard fought match looking for a spot in MARFU's in the spring. The match ended with Salisbury claiming victory, but Loyola gave all it had.
The Hounds led for most of the competition, but a late try for Salisbury took it to overtime, and eventually claimed a late victory.
With the loss, the Hounds played for the final spot in MARFU's on Sunday against UMBC, and came away with a win by a score of 10-5.
UMBC was leading 5-0 after the first half, but Jaron Fragner, helped by his aerodynamic hair, scored two important tries to give Loyola the 10-5 victory.
It was a day of big time play for Loyola, with Earl Choi and Campbell Gibson stepping up for the ruggers, along with Chris "Don't Call Me Park" Robinson.
"Chris played really well," said an unnamed girl in Bellarmine 103. "He's like, really, really fast."
The team needed strong play and people to step up if they were going to win today, especially with fatigue setting in and injuries.
"Our forward play was unstoppable in the second half," said Eric Larmann, gentleman and scholar. "The pack was the reason we ended up getting two tries in the second half."
Pack play was strong all weekend for the ruggers, even in yesterdays loss to Salisbury. Salisbury had a lot more size on Loyola, but that didn't stop the pack from doing all it could to help try to propel the Hounds. They took the strong play from yesterday and carried it over totoday's important win.
"After a heartfelt overtime loss yesterday, it was inspiring to see the way our team stepped up against UMBC," said Tim Biscoe, all around good guy.
So congrats to the boys, and good luck next semester in MARFU's.
Editor's Note: Bill Kerrane did not play because of a hamstring problem. We all hope he can recover soon.
Mascherano
According to reports coming out of England, Argenina's captain and Liverpool standout Javier Mascherano will be leaving the K.O.P. in January to sign with Barcelona.
This is absolutely huge, because not only would Barcelona be strengthening their midfield which is already the best in the world, but Liverpool would have lost it's two best defensive midfield players in recent years to Spanish clubs.
This is a sign that the EPL is slipping and La Liga is picking up. It's where all the big names want to play right now, as shown by the fact that Messi, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Xavi, Villa and many more call it there home.
If there's one thing I love, it's the English Premier League being knocked down a bit, and I'm glad that Spain has stepped up to do the knocking.
Also, it's worth mentioning that Jordan Berg scored a Frank Lampard-esque goal against Hopkins Saturday night for club.
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