HELENA — Ahead of this season, expectations were high for Carroll College’s men’s soccer team. The Fighting Saints were picked fourth of 14 teams in the Cascade Conference’s preseason poll.
And four games into conference play the Saints have exceeded expectations, boasting an unblemished 4-0 conference record and not allowing a goal in almost a month.
“I see parallels to groups that I’ve won championships with ... as far as determination,” said Carroll head coach Austin Shick. “Like a belief of, ‘Oh, there’s something here. There's something that we can do.’
“And then it factors into just a wholehearted happiness. I mean, you saw the giggles, the smiles, but also the intensity and intentionality.”
Sophomore forward Felix Billard seconded Shick’s assessment of the team’s camaraderie.
“It’s amazing. It’s the first time I’ve ever been in a team where everyone loves each other so much,” said Billard. “We’re basically living together, we’re going to class together, training every day together, and I think we all have that that same goal, that same objective.
“We're all hungry. So, I think it’s been ... I’ve never had anything like it. And I think it couldn’t be better, honestly.”
Billard’s play has garnered back-to-back Cascade Conference offensive player of the week honors and an NAIA national offensive player of the week honor. Billard said he did not expect to win either award coming into this season as he played in just six games last year.
“Definitely not,” said Billard. “My first objective was to just make the travel trips judging how last year went. A lot of maturing has been done. And when the first Player of the Week came, it was honestly surreal. Everyone just helped me out so much.”
Shick commended Billard’s growth on and off the pitch.
“So, he played 139 minutes last year. We didn’t travel him on any away trips,” said Shick. “The potential was always there, just the buy-in wasn’t. And this year he’s put his head down, he’s done the hard work, and he’s really just matured so much more as a human than as a player.”
Despite the accolades and unbeaten conference record so far, Shick reminded his team that they still have much bigger goals to score.
“We would like to do something special at the end of this year,” said Shick. “There is still seven games left ... And we got to get a little lucky. We got to continue to be intense, be intentional — learning, taking care of ourselves, and then good things come with that. So, talk to me in seven weeks and we’ll see what happens.”
Carroll’s season continues Friday as the Saints host Corban University in Nelson Stadium.
