Men’s Soccer wins in overtime

After a delayed start lead to a build up of amounted aggression among fans and players alike, the third-ranked Christopher Newport University Men’s soccer team rallied to a thrilling 4-3 overtime victory over visiting Marlins from Virginia Wesleyan.

The Marlins fans traveled in force to CNU to witness the intense battle and Virginia Wesleyan struck first when John McKenzie dribbled up the right side, drawing senior Captains goalkeeper Justin Wolfe out of the net. McKenzie crossed the ball over a diving Wolfe and Josh Richardson connected and put it into the back right corner.

The Captains would respond in the 33rd minute, when senior midfielder Brian Lybert set up sophomore midfielder Caleb Lewis with a through ball on the left side of the pitch. Lewis beat his defender to the ball and put the ball into the back right corner of the net to pull CNU even at 1.

Just before the end of the half, Virginia Wesleyan was able to pull ahead 2-1, when Philip Smith took it up the left side and crossed it to the back right corner of the goal. Wolfe dove back to deflect the shot over the crossbar, but was unable to get enough hand on the ball as it just made its way into the net.

Wesleyan got their third goal early in the second half when Paul Messier took a corner from the left side of the field. Roberto Rosales jumped in front of the left post right in front of Wolfe to connect on the kick, redirecting it just inside of the left post.

“I’ve got to owe it to the rest of the guys,” said Wolfe. “We stepped up and knew that we had to come together, to pull through, and we did.”

CNU, down 3-1, would fight back minutes later when Lybert beat a defender on the left side and found the back right corner of the net.

Back in the game, CNU desperately needed to score an equalizer and force overtime. After several close shots, senior forward Steven Farmer punched in a shot after the ball was loose in front of the goal in the 72nd minute.

That set up a 3-3 tie and the game went into overtime. Fans were on their feet in anticipation of the deciding goal. With seven minutes remaining in the first overtime period, Lybert took the ball up the left side, beat a defender, and fired a shot to the far post, but the keeper’s outstretched arms deflected the shot. Fortunately for CNU, junior forward Andrew Bonorden was in the right place to follow up on Lybert’s shot, and proceeded to tap it in, setting the crowd into a frenzy.

“You get in that moment and you can see it happening before it even does,” said Bonorden. “You just have to make it happen. We had a number of opportunities throughout the game to make it happen and it’s great to have put it away.”

“We have a lot of heart,” said Lybert. “It was going to come and we all knew that it was going to happen. I don’t think there was a moment where we thought we would lose.”

The win, coupled with a 2-1 victory over Marymount University the following night, kept the Captains undefeated on the season, and propelled them to a first place ranking overall. The Captains next match will be in N.Y. when they face Oneonta State Friday, Sept. 16 at 4 p.m.

Posted by Pierce Yarberry on Sep 14 2011. Filed under Soccer, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.