After a slow start to the season, the Whitewater men’s soccer team defeated Ripon College 3-1 Sunday in a matinee game on family day and moved to 2-4 on the season.

The Warhawks started the year 0-4 but have won their last two games.

Head coach Greg Henschel said the slow start was a result of the team “still searching for their true identity” and never felt the team was getting rattled from the less than stellar start.

“The only sense I got from the team was that they were opening the season in a mindset of recovery in an effort to search for their identity,” Henschel said. “I didn’t believe the team was down or getting rattled from the slow start. Frustrated yes, but rattled no.”

Coach Henschel said the team hasn’t been working on anything differently in practice the past week resulting in the two-game win streak, rather he credited the bounce back to “just sticking with what we believe in as a team.”

Standout senior midfielder Ryan Boyd has elevated his play early on scoring three of the eight ‘Hawk goals so far this season and Austin Saari along with Sam Kuchenreuther have risen up as freshman to contribute to the team’s recent success.

“Ryan Boyd has really stepped up and worked hard so far this season providing the team with some great insight and leadership,” Henschel said. “We’ve also got two freshmen in Saari and Kuchenreuther that have really been exceptional and we hope that continues as a team.”

The Warhawks open up WIAC play tonight against UW-Platteville and will look to extend the winning streak to three games and open up the conference schedule 1-0 in hopes of a WIAC three-peat.

“Of course we want to try and defend our conference title, since the men’s conference started in 2009 we’ve won the first two,” Henschel said. “So yeah, it’s important to get off to a 1-0 start.”

Look for the Warhawks to do just that against the Pioneers at 7 p.m. tonight at Fiskum Field in the Resident Hall Association Game.