SPRING ARBOR, Mich. – The Spring Arbor University men's soccer team dominated the majority of its contest against Crossroads League rival Indiana Wesleyan University, scoring twice in the beginning of the second half. But, five minutes of poor defense and heavy pressure from the 19th ranked Wildcats resulted in two goals in one minute which sent the game to overtime. The two extra sessions proved to be eventful, but yielded no goals as 110 minutes of soccer resulted in a tie.  

THE BASICS

FINAL SCORE: Spring Arbor 2, #19 Indiana Wesleyan 2

LOCATION: Cougar Soccer Complex | Spring Arbor, Mich.

RECORDS: Spring Arbor 7-2-2 (1-0-1 CL), Indiana Wesleyan 5-3-2 (0-1-1 CL)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• A well-played first half saw back and forth action for the entirety. The half ended scoreless, but was not shy of opportunity. Spring Arbor had a couple chances early, including a header from Janum Sailor off a corner that was sent just high.
• Indiana Wesleyan had its fair share of chances in the first half as well but senior Cobi Piper proved to be too much between the pipes coming up with two big saves.
• The second half was filled with pressure from both sides early. The Cougars, however, began to apply pressure on the Wildcat defense hoping it would crack – which it finally did. On a set piece in the 58th minute, Jacob Crull played a ball beautifully into the mixer that found the diving head of junior Mitchell Simon, his second goal of the season to make it 1-0.
• The Cougars were not done with their high pressure as the ball found the foot of Morris Kamara on a clean break away where he slotted it in the bottom right corner of the goal to extend Spring Arbor's lead to 2-0.
• The Wildcats, however, would not quit. Indiana Wesleyan applied a lot of pressure in the last ten minutes of the game as the freshman, Brazilian native, Glauber Oliviera found the back of the net twice within a minute sending the game to overtime.
• Overtime saw opportunities for both sides but never resulted in a goal.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE

• Spring Arbor gets a key result in a big league game. The tie moves the Cougars home unbeaten streak to 17 games.  
• The two late goals from the Wildcats extends their unbeaten streak over Spring Arbor to four years.

FOR THE FOES

• Indiana Wesleyan moves to winless in conference play for the first time in over a decade. 
• The Wildcats were outshot on the night 19-13.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH NATHAN MILLER

• "That match was certainly a classic one in this extraordinary rivalry."
• "You have to give credit to a very tough opponent for fighting back, although we certainly are gutted we didn't shut the door on that game."
• "We drifted a bit from what made us so successful and lost control of the tempo of the game. We certainly thought we won it and we did some very good things. Losing Hunt in the last 10 minutes really hurt us, no doubt."
• "The positive is that this still puts us in a great position and we need to prepare for our next couple matches."

UP NEXT

Spring Arbor will travel to Fort Wayne, Indiana to play the University of Saint Francis. The match is slated to be played Saturday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.

Men's Soccer Contact: Chris Bauman | 517-750-6504 | christopher.bauman@arbor.edu
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