This past season was a tumultuous one for the Madison College men’s soccer team, full of golden moments and missed opportunities. It’s these missed opportunities that showed up on Oct. 18 and ended the team’s playoff run in a 4-2 shootout loss to Rock Valley College at home.

“The game was pretty indicative of our season overall, where we had all the opportunity in the world and just couldn’t capitalize,” said Coach Corey Simms.

Indeed, the improved 6-8-2 mark, 5-4-1 in conference play, suggests that this team had some promise, and there is hope going forward.

During the season, Madison College had 11 games decided by one goal or less. Of those 10 games, only four were wins. Of the remaining five, two were blowout wins over UW-Baraboo and MATC-Milwaukee at home.

This team missed a lot of opportunities, even in wins, to put away games that should have been over sooner than they were.

“It stings because there were moments where we played exceptionally well and we didn’t… give them too many chances, but we weren’t able to capitalize on the chances we did get,” Simms said.

That comment rings true not just for the Rock Valley game, but for many games this season. Even the game against UW-Baraboo had many missed chances, despite the already lopsided score.

One of the best players of the season was goalie Thomas Sheahan, who had 10 saves against Rock Valley, and kept Madison College in many games, including their first win over Triton in nine years and their first tie in three against Joliet. Sheahan had 82 saves on the season, allowing just 19 goals

In all, four players made all-conference teams, with Tim Kennedy and defender Parvis Samadza making first team, while defender Mikel Appiah and Goalie Thomas Sheahan being named to the second team.

”We had pretty high hopes, pretty high expectations,” said Simms. “It wasn’t a disappointing season in terms of where we’ve come from, but disappointing in terms of where we want to go.”

Simms has taken this once downtrodden team, and is shaping them into what could be a potential championship contender.