GOSHEN, Ind. – Three goals in less than seven minutes was too much to overcome for the Goshen College men's soccer team as they lost to visiting Aquinas College 3-1 Saturday night.
"Tonight, we were beaten by a very good Aquinas College team that was full of speed on both ends of the field," head coach Tavi Mounsithiraj said. "Really we did not play well at all and that is testimony to what Aquinas was able to throw at us. We were on our heels most of the night and yes there were moments I thought we looked really good, but there were also times we just looked like we did not belong."
The Maple Leafs took an early lead when they were awarded a penalty kick 16 minutes into the match. Junior Josh Van Allen calmly stepped up to the spot and ripped the penalty into the right side netting for his first career goal.
The lead held until the 36th minute when Tyler Fischer equalized for Aquinas from 18 yards out. It went downhill quickly from there, though, as the visitors struck again in the 41st and 42nd minutes to take a 3-2 lead into the halftime break.
"They were too good tonight as they pressed and pressed to find an equalizer and with a mistake in our back third, Aquinas capitalized on it with a shot from the top of the box," Mounsithiraj continued. "That goal really gave them momentum and with an injury to our center back, suddenly we lost our focus and allowed two quick goals, never really fully recovering from there."
Goshen held strong defensively in the second half, but could not find a breakthrough goal to get back into the game either. Goalkeeper Brian O'Leary made four saves for Goshen.
"In the second half, I reminded the guys that we just got to go out there and play hard and use it as an opportunity to learn and continue to prepare ourselves for conference," added Mounsithiraj. "We need to do a better job passing the ball and making better decisions and I thought we did a good job of the in the second half, but tonight the better team won."
The Maple Leafs (2-2) continue their home stand on Wednesday when Cornerstone University (Mich.) comes to town.
