Atlanta, GA (U-WIRE) -- This past weekend the Tech men's club soccer team defeated Mercer 7-0 in the away game. Kevin Koushel, Luc Castera and Dominik Schmid each scored two goals and Don Pottinger scored one goal.

Castera's goal was an impressive performance as he dribbled through five defenders on his way to the goal.

Tech dominated the entire game, as Mercer only had one shot on goal for the entire match.

Tech moves to 1-0 on the season going in to this weekend's University of Florida tournament. The soccer club won this event last year and they look to repeat as champions.

The next game after the tournament is Sept. 30 when the Jackets play in Athens against UGA.

The club has a lot to live up to from last season. A year ago the Jackets finished first in the Southeastern Collegiate Soccer League (SCSL) and made an appearance in the NIRSA national tournament.

They advanced to the Sweet 16 before falling to Texas A&M, who went on to win the national championship.

"We expect to get to the national championship this season in Tuscaloosa," said head coach Jason Daley, who also plays as a forward on the team.

In season play, the Jackets compete in the Southeast Division of the SCSL along with Auburn, Georgia Southern, Georgia College & State University and Mercer.

Twenty schools total compete in the SCSL, including Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Mississippi State, among others.

Tech has won the SCSL regular season title two years in a row and is looking to repeat again.

Last year in the SCSL championship, the Tech club beat Southern Polytechnic State 4-0, Tennessee 3-0, Mississippi State 8-0 and Vanderbilt 3-1.

The key players on this year's team are Schmid, Castera, Brian Jones and Evan Wolfe. Most of the players on the team have played high school or top youth league soccer for many years and look to continue their success from those levels.

"There is not much difference between the stars on the team and the bench players," Schmid said.

Schmid scored 30 goals last season as a forward, and he will attempt to match that performance this season.

Schmid also was the leading scorer for Tech in the SCSL championship games. He scored seven goals in the four games.

Schmid is a graduate student from Germany. He graduated from the University of Munich with a degree in mathematics, the same subject he is studying at Tech.

This is Schmid's third semester playing as forward for Tech. In Germany he started playing soccer for a traveling club team when he was 14 years old.

He chose to come to Tech because of an exchange program through the University of Munich and plans on returning after his graduate studies are completed.

"Soccer is the number one sport in Germany. The speed of the game is higher for the club sports there than it is for the equivalent here in the United States," Schmid said.

This is one of the differences between life in Germany as a soccer player and the U.S. There are also differences in life as a college student.

For example many students in the U.S. live on campus while going to school. In Germany the universities do not have any housing. After class is over, students return to their homes off campus.

Daley, a forward who is also the head coach, initially had no interest in coming to Tech because he was pursuing a soccer scholarship while at Starr's Mill High School. But after he blew out his knee his senior year of high school, he was not offered any scholarship.

Daley began playing on traveling teams at the age of nine. One of his teams, the AFC Lightning, won two state championships. At Starr's Mill his team won one state championship.

The soccer team will host its first home game Oct. 30 against the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. UTC is also a member of the SCSL. The only other home game is against Georgia on Nov. 6.

(C) 2004 The Technique via U-WIRE