For an average-height, average-weight player, the GW men’s soccer team’s striker Andy Stadler is incredibly easy to point out.

For starters, there is his dirty blonde hair – poofy enough to be considered an afro on the right day.

Then there is his demeanor. Riding to the game, Stadler listens to music – mainly old-school hip-hop. As he puts it, it’s “just really chill music. Nice little beats – know what I mean?”

And before every game, while most of his team is jumping, yelling and clapping their hands to get in the mood for competition, Stadler remains calm. During games, he never yells.

That is, except when he scores. Which, this year, is very often.

Stadler has already scored five goals in as many games for the Colonials – with his most recent score coming off a spectacular 20-yard effort against Navy in Annapolis Tuesday.

When asked to explain his hot start to the season, one word always pops up in his answers: confidence.

“Most people are scared to take shots because they don’t know what the coach is going to think,” said Stadler, who averages nearly four shots per game and leads the team in shots taken. “I just feel like I’m going to score every game – that’s pretty much all I’m thinking.”

Yet it was only two seasons ago that Stadler was struggling to build any kind of confidence at all. As a freshman, the Milwaukee native came on to a team with a lot of depth at the striker position. He found himself subbing in and out of games, making it hard to have any kind of an impact.

But even in the limited time, Stadler was still able to create chances for himself. By his own estimation, Stadler said that he had shots hit the post seven or eight times through the course of the season.

Stadler’s sophomore year gave him not only an increase in playing time, but also an entirely different kind of challenge only three games in: a pulled hamstring.

“Someone crossed it to me and I whiffed on the ball. I felt it immediately,” Stadler recalled. He finished the game that day, but the injury only worsened as the season continued.

“I remember we were doing some sprints and my leg pretty much went limp and I couldn’t run anymore,” he said. “When it would happen in games I had to get subbed off. It was really frustrating.”

Even with the injury, Stadler still chipped in seven goals and six assists for the Colonials last season, finishing as the team’s leading scorer despite starting only eight games during the year. But toward the end of the season, the pain got too much to bear, and Stadler was forced to sit out.

Now, at peak health and brimming with confidence, Stadler hopes his scoring touch will lead GW to a successful season.

“I really think we can get to the (Atlantic 10 tournament) final this year. I really do,” he said.

What does he think they need to do to get there?

Just have confidence.