In the pouring rain and freezing cold at Ferguson Field Oct. 20, 2011, the Ashland men’s soccer team put together one of the best performances of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season.

Junior Jamie Dollar headed in two corner kicks that came off the left foot of senior midfielder Kenny Hewitt in the first 25 minutes, and Ashland spent the rest of the match protecting a lead over conference-leading Ohio Dominican. Despite a spectacular free kick goal by ODU’s Casey Weddle in the 75th minute, the Eagles were able to hold on for the victory.

It was the most inspired 90 minutes of soccer that Ashland played all season. It was a total team victory. As soon as the final whistle sounded, the entire team erupted in euphoria.

That performance should have never happened. It came at the tail end of a season in which the Eagles lost eight matched in ten tries over a span of five weeks; a season in which they did not hold a lead for the last four weeks of that dreadful stretch; where the defending GLIAC champions failed to even make the conference tournament.

Yet, at the end of the season, the Eagles stood strong against some of their toughest competition. They grabbed results against nationally ranked Northwood, NCAA tournament qualifier Saginaw Valley State and ODU.

It was the coming together of the entire team that made that run – four wins and a draw in the last six matches – possible. A good portion of the core from last year’s team returns in 2012, and it will be the lessons they learned from last year that head coach Jon Freeman will lean on.

“Those guys don’t want to go through that again,” he said. “They’re the ones that are going to have to steer the ship and be the leaders and make sure we get the results each week.”

Included in that group is Dollar, now a senior. He was named to the Midwest Region second team last year and has been an all-GLIAC selection the past two seasons. He will anchor a back line that includes returning starters in fellow senior Mitch Dehyle and sophomores Alex Kemp and Max Rohda.

Redshirt junior goalkeeper Justin Nolan is in his third year as a starter and senior goalie Kurt Innes is a valuable backup with game experience.

In the midfield, seniors Zaan Janse and Andrew Over, junior Alex Johnson and sophomore Buster Meaney all bring experience.

Those players used the momentum they gained at the end of last season to have a successful offseason, not losing a match in the spring.

“We still had an opportunity to make the GLIAC tournament (in 2011),” Innes said. “Obviously, we didn’t make it, but we finished on a high note. We were putting ourselves in position, giving ourselves opportunities to win, and it was a good high note to go out on and it held us through the offseason.”

It will be up to all of the returning players to make sure the large group of talented newcomers knows what can happen if the whole team is not there game in and game out.

“We don’t want to go through another season like that,” Innes said. “I don’t want my last season of playing competitive soccer to be how last year was. I want to be going and playing in November (in the NCAA tournament), not sitting in my room.”

The Eagles will rely on sophomore forward Adam Mitchell (who was ineligible last season), transfer Guilherme Karaoglan and freshman Eric Ashley to score goals. The new faces are more than welcome on a team that scored just 20 goals last season. Half of those goals came from Hewitt, who graduated, and Dollar, who is a defender.

In two preseason matches – a 1-1 draw against Mount Vernon Nazarene and a 5-0 victory over Wooster – Ashley (2 goals), Mitchell (2) and Karaoglan all scored.

Freeman knows he will need production from everyone if the Eagles are to reach their potential, however.

“If you take ownership and your role and make sure you take care of the role and see the value and importance of that role, the team can succeed,” he said. “If a few players don’t – and I think each game a few players didn’t do that during the year – I think it shows in the result at the end of the year.”

The Eagles open their season tomorrow at Slippery Rock. They play Mercyhurst Sunday before returning for their first home game the following Sunday against Tiffin.