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BLOOMSBURG—When the Bloomsburg University men's soccer team ended the 2001 season with four straight wins, coach Paul Payne was optimistic about his 2002 squad.

His team didn't disappoint him. The Huskies opened the season with eight straight wins to stretch its consecutive victory streak to 12 games, breaking the school-record set by the 1979 team with a 4-2 win over Mercy College on Saturday. The Huskies have continued to move up the national rankings and are now 15th in the latest NSCAA/Adidas poll after starting the season 21st.

“We haven't talked about the winning streak at all,” Payne said. “It has never been mentioned. I have always said you deal with one match at a time. Our next goal is to play well in the first half of our next match. Then we want to play well in the second half. If you take care of business, you can reach your ultimate goal.”

The winning streak will get another test on Wednesday when the Huskies host Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference rival West Chester University at 2 p.m. West Chester was the last team to beat Bloomsburg, 6-0 on October 19 of last year. Two days before that, the Huskies fell to East Stroudsburg 2-1.

“The game against West Chester is significant because it is a PSAC game and the players have made it a goal to do well in the PSAC,” Payne said. “Last year it was just one of those games. We had a tough week but it kind of started what we have now.”

Bloomsburg has won close games, blowouts and overtime contests to keep its streak alive. The winning streak started two days after that loss to West Chester with a 3-0 victory over Caldwell. During the next 11 games, Bloomsburg won five games by one goal, three of those in overtime.

“The players believe in each other,” Payne said. “It is a great group of young men that care about what we do. They care enough to disagree with each other and they care enough to disagree with me and that's great. We could have quit last year when we had the tough week with the loss to West Chester. We could have quit when we were down two goals earlier this year but we didn't. These kids have never quit on me.”

The Huskies have also won two tournaments, The Bloomsburg University Fall Soccer Classic and the Bald Eagle Admiral Classic at Lock Haven.

Balance has been the key for the Huskies as 13 players have scored. Sophomore midfielder Adam Clay (Dallas/Dallas) is the leading scorer with five goals and also has three assists. He scored the game-winning goal in a 3-2 win over Goldey-Beacom and the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Wilmington College in the Admiral Classic championship game.

Junior midfielder Mike Ross (Bloomsburg/Bloomsburg) has scored three goals, and has three assists. Sophomore forward Greg Pompei (Andover, N.J./Newton), who led the team in scoring as a freshman, has three goals and two assists. Junior back Travis Martzall (Myerstown/ELCO) has scored three times, including a game-winning goal against New York Institute of Technology in the The Admiral Classic.

Freshman Venus Cherry (Castries, St. Lucia/Castries Comprehensive) leads the team with four assists.

“I said earlier in the season that if we could find balance we could be dangerous,” Payne said. “It's been contagious. The opposing teams don't know whom to focus on. We don't have one individual super star. We have kids who are playing well but not one individual star.”

Senior keeper Dustin Henry (Bernville/Tulpehocken) has been in goal for five wins this season and has allowed just three goals while making 13 saves. He has a goals-against average of .60. Senior Kevin Wright (Souderton/Pennridge) has three wins this year while allowing four goals. Each goalkeeper has three shutouts during the 12-game winning streak.

“I'm comfortable with both keepers as long as they are and as long as the players are,” Payne said. “They both bought into the idea of sharing time and that has been the key. That reinforces the idea that the team is more important that individual statistics.”