page_title: American Eagles men's soccer
section_title: New conference, familiar foes (1974–1976)
hierarchical_section_title: American Eagles men's soccer / New conference, familiar foes (1974–1976)
caption_attribution_description: English: Reeves Field on the campus of American University as AU men’s soccer takes on Lehigh in September 2019.
context_page_description: The American Eagles men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of American University. The team is a member of the Patriot League of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In 1985, the team reached to the national championship, losing to UCLA after eight overtimes.
context_section_description: The East Coast Conference (ECC) retained the MAC University Division's east-west sectional alignment—which reflected more of a big market-small market division than geography, with West Chester moving into the West Division (along with Bucknell, Delaware, Lafayette, Lehigh and Rider) and AU remaining in the East with the four Philadelphia schools (Drexel, La Salle, St. Joseph's and Temple) and Long Island-based Hofstra. But not wanting to lose such a high-quality regular opponent, Mehlert would continue to schedule the Golden Rams until they would eventually leave Division I in 1982. The 1974 season would also see AU's first game against the University of Maryland, a 2–3 loss in College Park, beginning another top-notch annual local rivalry. Unhappy with his three candidates to succeed Kuykendall at goalkeeper, Mehlert asked senior midfielder John Rachlin to try the position after watching him “fooling around” in the nets during practice. Despite not having ever previously played the position in a competitive game, Rachlin would help the Eagles attain a 3-4-2 record against D1 opponents and a 1-2-2 mark in the ECC East, beating West Chester at home and earning shutouts against Hofstra on the road in his first win and Georgetown at home to end the season. After a shaky start that included AU's first loss to local rival George Washington in 6 years, the selfless Rachlin earned enthusiastic support from his teammates and praise from Mehlert.
  There are many differences in the rules of college soccer compared to the professional and international game, including the ability of substituted players to re-enter the game (with certain limitations) and a game-clock that counts in the wrong direction (backwards). Another critical difference is the treatment of regular-season ties, which the NCAA over the decades has tried various ways to resolve, using overtime periods of different durations under both timed and sudden-death rules. If college soccer was played like soccer in the rest of the world, the Eagles would have been undefeated against D1 opponents in 1975, but officially were 5-2-3 (thanks to a 1-2-3 record in their 6 overtime games, including a heartbreaking own-goal loss to West Chester on the road and a home overtime loss to Temple—the closest the Eagles had come to beating the traditional-powerhouse Owls in 10 tries). They also had their first-ever winning record in conference play, going 3-1-1 including their first win over St. Joseph's (they were previously 0-7-2 against the Hawks). Junior goalkeeper Jack Cassell (a name very familiar to the AU community) brought stability in the nets for the Eagles, recording four shutouts against D1 opponents. In recognition of their most-successful season to date, four Eagles were named to the all-ECC East Division team: defender Ted Nussdorfer (junior), midfielder Mbakiso “Reggie” Dambe (senior), and forwards Alex Chambers (senior) and Aidan Cunningham (freshman).
  The 1976 season would see the Eagles continue to play very competitive soccer under Coach Mehlert, going 6-4-1 against D1 opponents and 2–3 in the ECC East. The schedule would see AU compete in its first-ever regular-season tournament, the Old Dominion Classic hosted by ODU, in which the Eagles tied Princeton 1-1 in their first game against an Ivy League foe, and defeated East Carolina in overtime 7-3 thanks to a 4-goal explosion in less than 12 minutes by senior forward Chuck Banknell, giving him an AU D1-record 5-goal performance. Senior goalkeeper Cassell suffered a separated shoulder in an early-season loss to La Salle, opening the door for sophomore transfer Tony Vecchione (from Montclair State) to post two shutouts in a 3-day period. Vecchione would share the position with Cassell after his return from injury and go on to become one of the great AU ‘keepers and later coach local rival George Washington. As a defunct conference, the ECC’s archival records are difficult to find for verification, but AU records say that at least freshman midfielder Luis Calderon was named to the all-ECC's East Division team.
caption: Reeves Field during an American game against Lehigh in September 2019.
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