By John Bernstein
Sports Editor
Freshman Alex Swanger has made an immediate impression at UR, scoring in overtime to help the men's soccer team defeat Clarkson. Hannah Bazarian, Photo Editor.
Freshman Alex Swanger couldn’t have picked a better time to score his first collegiate goal this past weekend — in double overtime to seal a 1-0 win over Clarkson. The Penfield, N.Y. native made the tally with 92 seconds left.
Why did you decide to attend UR?
I decided to come here because I wanted to be close to home, and both my father and grandfather came here. I’ve also been coming to camps here since I was a little kid, and I always loved the campus. I have also known Coach Apple for a while, and I knew what a great coach he is.
Having recently made the transition from high school to college soccer, do you feel you’ve had to change your game at all?
I haven’t had to shift my game very much since coming here, as the club team I played for played at a high level. However, I have had to adjust slightly to the pace and the physicality of the college game.
Your team played St. Lawrence on Friday, then Clarkson the very next day. Is it tough playing games back-to-back like that?
It can be tough, especially with how physical the games can get, but everyone on the team put in a lot of work over the summer to improve fitness so we would be prepared for weekends with back to back games. Also, we have a deep team, with many players capable of starting and playing a number of minutes.
Describe what was going through your head when you received the ball, with just over a minute and a half left in overtime.
Rory Charcholla, our assistant coach, pulled me aside during the break between the two overtimes and told me that I was going to get one or two chances in the second overtime and that I should dribble at the center back and go to goal. When I looked up and saw the center back in front of me, that’s all I thought about.
