the minaret

Senior Zach Fraser, of the men’s soccer team, scored his first goal of his collegiate career on Oct. 9 en-route to a 4-0 win over the Florida Southern Mocs.

The goal was scored from 40 yards out and was the third goal of the contest. The shot in which Fraser scored the goal on was ironically an attempted cross. “When I hit it,I knew it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t a good cross,” he said. “They [the team] all realized it was in before I did.”

For Fraser, it was an exciting chance to reminisce of playing in high school. While at Douglas County High School, Fraser led the team in goals, while helping his team to three state titles and also a regional title in 2005.

Fraser is from Denver, and being that it was parents weekend, his family was in attendance to witness the goal.  “It was cool. My parents flew into the game, so they got to see it,” he said.

On top of being a star high school athlete, Fraser was also the valedictorian of his class with a 4.2 GPA and a four-year letterman at DCHS.

Fraser played club soccer with Real Colorado where he also was a part of four state championships, one regional championship and also made a national finalist appearance.

After being such a strong attacker, Fraser is still humbled by playing his position of defender with UT. “I’ll take the no accolades any day playing defense over getting all the goals,” he said. “I really enjoy it.”

The speed Fraser posses is evident as he is a key counterpart in keeping Tampa opponents off the scoreboard. “I’m right up there with Pascal [Milien] in speed,” Fraser said. “They figured if they put me back there people wouldn’t be able to run past me.”

The Tampa defense as a whole has been virtually impenetrable all season; UT has allowed only eight goals. Even the nation’s leading goal scorer, Paulo Vaz of Lynn

University, couldn’t score on the Spartans. Fraser said the team was confident in their defense; no extra preparation was taken to account for Vaz.

“We are confident in Kyle [Williams]. He is in that center position right were Vaz would be,” Fraser said. “Vaz had one shot in the 35 minutes he played. Kyle marked him out of the game from the start.”

Although Fraser has all the tools to be a goal scorer, and could easily have been scoring goals all season, he chooses to be much more reserved when playing defense.

“Sometimes I get nervous about making a run up there,” he said. “I start thinking, ‘Who’s covering my space?’”

“It’s much more of a gamble for me to run all the way up to the top,” Fraser said. “I’d rather not get beat. That’s what I worry about.”