The Oswego State men’s soccer team is currently 5-4-4 on the season with a 4-2-1 record in SUNYAC play. The Lakers have their minds set on the SUNYAC playoffs and look to bounce back on Friday against SUNY New Paltz and on Saturday against SUNY Oneonta after dropping two consecutive games against SUNY Cortland and SUNY Geneseo.

The Lakers will certainly have their hands full in their final two games as they face two of the top three teams in the SUNYAC rankings. Even following back-to-back losses, junior Slater Bushen believes that his squad can win any game, no matter the opponent.

“With the culture of guys that we got, with the level of skill we have, it’s in our control,” Bushen said. “The game can be ours, we just have to go grab it.”

Bushen has certainly done his part in making this team a playoff contender by scoring three goals over the weekend and winning men’s soccer athlete of the week. Bushen believes that his recent success comes from developing a good game plan.

“What’s been working for me has just been finding open opportunities when I can get them, I just need a little bit of daylight and that comes from having a really good gameplan,” Bushen said. “A lot of our game is just being relaxed and composed on the ball and being able to build up a good attack.”

For junior defenseman Ryan Young, who is tied for second on the team in points this season, also has high hopes for the Lakers this weekend. Young believes that his team always steps up when it comes to playing tougher opponents.

“We always play better against better teams,” Young said. “We’re a group of guys that get up for the big game, we can feel an intense game and we know this weekend is almost a playoff scenario, so we have to win or we’re going home.”

Leadership is always important when it comes to having good chemistry within the team, and luckily for the Lakers, they have a lot of it. Having a surplus of upperclassmen can certainly help with not only leadership, but it also adds experience and that can make things much easier when the team takes the field. 

“These guys have been great and it’s been big for us because we have two new classes who haven’t had too much experience,” Young said. “Everybody, all the juniors and seniors have been great with helping everyone out and we’ve seen leadership from the younger guys too.”

This week will have many implications for the Lakers in terms of making the SUNYAC playoffs, and the team has one more week of practice to tweak anything that they feel they needs it before their big weekend. Head coach Dan Kane believes that his team is in a good position in the standings as of right now but knows that they are facing two tough opponents.

“I think any team in the SUNYAC would take 4-2-1 with two games to go, so we’re excited about where we are,” Kane said. “We know we have two really talented teams that are coming to our place so we’re excited about that opportunity, and the message is in one sense to keep training hard and well, take some lessons from Cortland.”

Before the two losses against SUNY Cortland and SUNY Geneseo, the Lakers were on a roll, having not lost in almost a month. Kane believes that this past weekend’s losses could be a way for his team to focus on what they need to improve on heading into the final week.

“I think what we take away is that it’s small things, not big things, we know that we’re close enough and if you’re going to beat a good team you’re going to have to play well,” Kane said. “You have to do some things well, our decision making has to be a little bit better, our 1v1 defending needs to be a little bit better and we got to be a little sharper with our movement off the ball.”

Slater said that being aggressive offensively is something that he and the team feels should be a focal point of their gameplan to set the tone for their weekend matchups. Kane has a similar mindset for his players heading into the weekend.

“Slater has been awesome, once he came back and joined us after his injury he’s been a great boost to us,” Kane said. “Definitely want to have those attacking players that have that mindset of scoring goals, getting on the end of stuff and he’s got a perfect mindset for the final weekend of the regular season.”

In their most recent victory on Oct. 8, against SUNY Brockport, Young scored an electrifying goal to give the Lakers their fifth win of the year. Not only was that a big win, but it also gave their conference record a boost. 

“That was a big three points we really needed for that weekend, we didn’t really have much going for us the whole game,” Young said “It pretty much seemed like we were about to get the tie and then out of nowhere just getting three points was huge for us, especially going into this weekend now.”

Kane believes that was a huge moment for his team this season, especially coming from one their leaders in Young. This was a memory that Kane will not forget any time soon.

“It was a humongous goal and Ryan is a tremendous leader and we’re fortunate to have a lot of good leaders on this team,” Kane said. “That moment in particular is one that will stick with me, personally, for a long time.”

Emotions were certainly running high after the big win and that is something that the Lakers will try and replicate this weekend. Many players have stepped up for the Lakers this season and made big plays throughout, putting in hard work and dedication to their game. Kane praises the work that they have done this year.

“They have been inaugural pieces of what we’ve done this year,” Kane said. “And that started in 2019 with them playing major roles, staying with it through the year off. We knew we were going to have a lot of new guys coming in this year who hadn’t had experience and were going to have learning curves early on, but those guys had persistence and the confidence to know that we’re going to get it done at the end of the day.”

Photo provided by Oswego State Athletics