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Cougars Fall 1-0 to Bethel on Goal in
Double Overtime
written by Dave Parsons, Sports Information Director
BOXSCORE
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (9-24-2011) - The Mount
Vernon Nazarene University men's soccer team
dropped a hard-fought 1-0 decision in double
overtime to three-time defending Mid-Central
College Conference champion Bethel (Ind.)
College in the conference opener for both
teams at Cougar Field on Saturday afternoon.
There were not many scoring chances in
the first half of the match with each team
recording just three shots apiece. However,
the visiting Pilots (5-3, 1-0 MCC) put two
of their shots on frame with the Cougars
(4-4-1, 0-1 MCC) needing a non-goalie save
by freshman defender Collin Riley to stop
one of them.
The action began to heat
up in the second half. In the 54th minute,
Riley received a red card for a hard foul on
a 50-50 ball despite the fact that it was
just his first foul of the match. That
started what would be nearly 48 minutes of
action that MVNU would be forced to play a
man down.
Bethel managed a 9-5
advantage in total shots in the second half,
but neither team was still able to find the
back of the net as the match moved into the
first of two 10-minute sudden victory
overtime periods.
The Pilots had an
early chance in the first minute of
overtime, but a point-blank shot was fired
over the goal. A little while later another
shot was cleared off the line by senior
defender Steve Wilging to keep Bethel from
posting the victory. Meanwhile, sophomore
defender Caleb Palumbo just missed winning
the match for the Cougars in the final 10
seconds of the first overtime period as his
shot was stopped by Bethel goalie Cody
Troyer.
In the second overtime
period, the Pilots were final able to break
through and find the back of the net. After
a shot by Joao Couto went off the far post,
Luke Davis sent a cross to Romulo Nobrega in
front of the goal where Nobrega headed it
home with 8:27 left in the second overtime
to give Bethel the 1-0 victory.
The
Pilots finished the match with a 17-10
advantage in total shots, a slim 7-6 edge in
shots on goal, and an 8-4 lead in corner
kicks. Sophomore goalkeeper Ryan
Swartzentruber posted four saves for MVNU,
while Troyer stopped six shots for Bethel.
"We still haven't played our best
soccer, but I believe the best is yet to
come for this team," said Cougars' coach
Andrew Belleman. "We started slowly today
and when we started to gain momentum we had
to face more adversity with the red card.
Our guys showed a lot of heart and desire by
battling the rest of the match. It's a tough
way to lose, but Bethel is a good team and
we need to learn how to win those kind of
matches."
MVNU will get back to
action on Wednesday when the Cougars will
travel to Huntington (Ind.) University for
another MCC match that will kick off at 4
p.m.
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