Earlham 1 Bluffton 0

On the Saturday of Fall Break we play Bluffton, who are without a win in 2013---a situation that makes them very dangerous in my mind. The crowd is quite good considering that campus is almost deserted and we have 4 prospective players present, 2 from the Cincinnati area, 1 from St. Louis and 1 from North Carolina.

We begin brightly and dominate possession from the outset when, in the 18th minute, Ameer Yusuf breaks through and is tripped up by the keeper in the box for a penalty. The penalty, taken by Ameer, is saved by the keeper and the game remains scoreless. We have a series of half chances, the best of which is Salva Rivas' chest down to a volley, which the keeper saves well. Halftime and the game is tied 0-0.

In the first minute of the second half David Jones takes a corner from the right and Musa Ibrahim gets a head to it in front of goal and finishes under the crossbar. After the game Musa takes about a minute to recall when he last scored a header goal. No matter, we're up and I'm thinking we'll do some more damage soon. Doesn't happen. Bluffton's center back #6, Ryan Johnson-Evers, holds things together for his team at the back and the game ends 1-0 EC. For the second consecutive game we go 90 minutes without conceding a corner kick, which reflects our dominance in possession as much as the accuracy of our defending. However, we do commit over 20 fouls and wee the need to correct that before our next game.

We end the day tied for first in the HCAC with Rose Hulman and our next opponent, Hanover, who've made huge strides since Matt Wilkerson took over as coach 2 years ago.