(Box Score) Marion, IN — For Goshen head men’s soccer coach Tavi Mounsithiraj, it was the opportunity he craved.
For the Leafs’ program, however, it was another near miss.
Goshen (11-7-2, 5-3) dropped a 3-2 decision at 11th-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University Wednesday night, losing out on a chance at the team’s second straight Mid-Central Conference Tournament Championship and a subsequent home match in the upcoming NAIA Region VIII Championships. The Leafs — which qualified for NAIA regional play as a result of finishing runners-up in the MCC Tournament (Indiana Wesleyan earned the league’s other automatic berth as MCC regular-season champions) — will now travel to Aquinas College on Saturday for a right to keep their season alive.
It’s all just another opportunity in Mounsithiraj’s view.
“We were looking forward to tonight’s match with 11th-ranked IWU and another chance to play a very, very good side,” he said. “It was a very good championship match with two very good sides playing very hard. I am proud of our side to come down here and compete the way we did. We are getting better and better and give much credit to IWU for finding a way to get back in the game and earn the victory. This was a match that I would have paid the cost of admission to watch anytime. It was really good soccer.”
Looking to avenge a 1-0 loss to the Wildcats just 11 days earlier (click here for related article), the start of Wednesday’s match did not bode well for Mounsithiraj’s squad. Wesleyan’s David Trainer scored off a cross just three minutes into the action, setting what could have been an ominous tone for Goshen in the process.
Thankfully for the Leafs, sophomore Kyle Stiffney was able to tie the score just six minutes later, picking up a loose ball after a corner kick from classmate Luke Woodworth and blasting a point-blank shot into the back of the net.
“We didn’t panic after IWU’s first goal, and we actually began to dictate the pace a little bit,” Mounsithiraj said. “Kyle was in the right place at the right time, as Luke’s corner kick was just kind of batted around in the box before landing at Kyle’s feet.”
With newfound confidence, Goshen began to press forward at an even higher rate. An eventual 11 to four advantage in total first-half shots was rewarded in the 21st minute, when junior Cody Felton took a pass from sophomore Scott Wilkinson and scored his fourth goal of the season. Standing just inside the Wildcats’ 18-yard box, Felton controlled the ball in the air and placed a well-struck ball just past the IWU keeper, giving Goshen a 2-1 lead that held up through halftime.
That advantage may very well have been 3-1, had senior Nate Montiel not been denied by Wesleyan goalkeeper Spenser Lang just minutes following Felton’s tally. Montiel was able to slip behind the IWU defense for a one-on-one opportunity with Lang, only for the Wildcat keeper to come up with a huge, diving save.
“We could just feel that this was our game,” Mounsithiraj said. “We knew that IWU would come out hard in the second half and put pressure on us, but we didn’t know that we would never really get going in the second half. IWU made it tough on us whenever we got the ball, and we began making mistakes here and there.”
Those mistakes were capitalized on in the 62nd minute, as Wesleyan’s David Lopez-Cepero took a low cross from teammate Joel Trainer and banked it into the left side of the net to tie the game 2-2.
Now needing a score to win in traditional fashion, Goshen began to look for senior forward Tony Janzen, as the squad’s leading scorer came away with a total four shots — only to not connect on any. Janzen had arguably the game’s closest miss three-quarters of the way through the second period, bending a shot around four Wesleyan defenders only to miss on the high side of the crossbar by inches.
“Oh, I thought that was a goal for Tony,” Mounsithiraj said. “It was a very interesting game down the final minutes of the second half. It could have gone either way very easily.”
Sadly for Goshen, it was Wesleyan that placed a ball on the correct side of the frame, as Joel Trainer was able to slide a low liner past Leafs’ senior keeper Brad Graber with just three minutes to play. Eerily similar to Janzen’s second goal against the Marian College in the MCC Tournament Semi-Final (click here for article), Trainer used a barricade of bodies to shield his shot from the view of Graber.
“(Trainer’s) shot had a bit more pace on it than Tony’s did, but it was similar in that Brad never even saw it,” Mounsithiraj said.
Goshen won the statistical battle on several fronts, outshooting Indiana Wesleyan by a 15 to 12 count and taking four corner kicks to the Wildcats’ three. Goshen was whistled for 14 fouls to IWU’s nine however.
The Leafs now travel to Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament Champion Aquinas College for NAIA Region VIII Championship play on Saturday. Indiana Wesleyan will host WHAC regular-season champ Madonna University on Saturday as well.
The winners of those contests will then meet on Wednesday in a location to be determined. Should Goshen win and Wesleayn lose on Saturday, the Leafs would host the NAIA Region VIII Championship by virtue of the NAIA’s alternating-site rule (this year the MCC is the designated conference to host the NAIA Region VIII title game).
“We’ve got our sights set on the biggest prize of all, and that’s to try to get to the NAIA National Championships,” Mounsithiraj said. “We’ll do our best to get past Aquinas.”
Match time is set for 12 p.m. Saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Sophomore Kyle Stiffney 