With four games remaining on the schedule, the Simpson men’s soccer team is in the midst of one of its best seasons.

The Storm sit at 8-4-2 on the year and have only lost twice in the past eight games. With a tie against Buena Vista, the team has only been beaten once in the American Rivers Conference.

“One of the biggest reasons we are doing so well is everyone gets in on the scoring,” junior forward Tanner Alderson said. “We have several different guys with multiple goals this season, and it is nice to have guys that step up and can score for us when we need them to.”

Freshman forward Spencer Young leads the team with five goals, but sophomores Ian Dean and Justin Gilmour and freshman Baraka Ellie aren’t far off. The three players have all found the back of the net four times this year.

Thirteen different players have scored goals in the first 14 games. That’s up from only 10 total players all of last season.

Alderson has scored two goals this season and scored 16 last season. He gave much of the credit for the team’s success this season to the Storm’s defense.

“Our back five has been incredible this year,” Alderson said. “They have multiple shutouts this year, and it is a lot easier to win games when they keep the ball out of our net.”

The back five for Simpson includes Gilmour, juniors Trevor Fuccio and Connor Robson, senior Jack Arndt and sophomore goalie Jake Potratz. The group has held opponents to zero goals five separate times so far.

Last season, the men went 15-3-2 and made it to the semifinals of the conference tournament.

Alderson has high hopes for this year’s squad, which returns many players from a season ago and sprinkles in some new faces.

“The first two goals are to beat the big dogs in the league: Luther and Loras,” Alderson said. “After we get past those two games, we will start to look towards the conference tournament, and the end goal is always to win the tournament.”

Although it was a goal for the team to beat Luther, the Storm lost to them 2-1 on Wednesday. Ellie scored the Storm’s only goal in the first half, and the Storm led by one goal most of the game. Luther charged back and scored two goals in the last 10 minutes of play to beat Simpson.

The Storm play Loras Saturday, Oct. 13 at home. The first round of the American Rivers Conference tournament starts Oct. 27 with location and seeding still to be announced.