Aquinas 4, Concordia 3 - 2 OT

(November 1, 2008 - Ann Arbor, Mich.) -- It had been 11 years and three days since the Concordia men's soccer team had beaten the Saints of Aquinas College. The Saints also marched in ready to maintain a first-place tie with Madonna. So, the odds of a Cardinal victory seemed short to say the least. But this upstart squad is showing that years of being dominated may be coming to a quick end despite falling 4-3 in double overtime.

The Saints took a lead a little more than 13 minutes into play as Jeovani Pantoja took a Rubern Ornelas-Luna pass and knocked it passed Cardinal goalkeeper Brian Kressbach (Jr. - Clinton Twp., Mich.). Kressback, and his counterpart Ben Richardson of Aquinas, would, despite the score, make several key plays to keep their respective teams in the game.

Down 1-0, previous Cardinal teams would have assumed defeat, but they and their opponent knew it is a different team. "This game isn't over," was a remark yelled from the Aquinas side prior to the ball being put in play after the first score.

And Concordia proved the comment to be prophetic. Justin Schultz (Fr. - Belleville, Mich.) fed his older brother Erik (Jr. - Belleville, Mich.), who subsequently placed a beautiful pass onto the foot of Yonathan Zeleke (Fr. - Lansing, Mich.) who deposited the ball into the net to tie the game at 1-1 at the 24:07 mark.

Neither team would score the remainder of the first half and six minutes into the second stanza Pantoja again put the Saints up one with a penatly kick goal at 51:22. The Cardinals responded with the equalizer in similar fashion as Andrew McComas (Jr. - Brooklyn, Mich.) scored on a penatly kick himself a little less than eight minutes later.

Aquinas would again take the lead as Michael Vaughan would knock in a rebound as Kressbach made a sprawling save off of a Pantoja kick. As the ball rolled to the left of Kressbach, Vaughan smacked it into the back of the net and it was 3-2 with 25 minutes remaining in  regulation.

But the lead was short-lived as Joshua Schultz (Sr. - Belleville, Mich.) - the elder statesmen of the Schultz clan who was one of four seniors honored on the day - inbounds a ball to Kevin Meyer (Fr. - Roseville, Mich.) who fed Erik Schultz who struck a serious blow that whistled passed Richardson and the teams were tied again 3-3.

Neither team did much offensively, much to the credit of both keepers who made several key plays along the way. After regulation ended and the first overtime followed suit, the Cardinals looked ready to spring an upset on the visiting Saints.

It appeared to be in the making as the clocked ticked to nearly a minute left, but a crossing pass by Jarod Smith was met with the head of Erich Jackson on the far right side of the goal who was able to squirt the ball past Kressbach and the upset was for naught as Aquinas prevailed 4-3 in double overtime.

Concordia (2-9-3, 0-9-2 WHAC) just missed their opportunity to pick up their first conference win of the season - and the first since beating the Saints of Aquinas 4-3 on Oct. 28, 1997. The Cardinals have one last chance as they host Indiana Tech on Tuesday, November 4. The Warriors beat Concordia 3-0 earlier in the season and enter with a 7-8-2 overall record and a 3-8 record in the WHAC.