Wheaton advances to national championship match
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Wheaton College men's soccer team earned a dramatic 3-2 victory in two overtimes on Friday in a NCAA Division III semifinal against SUNY-Oneonta.
Junior Stephen Golz headed the ball into the net at 103:50 into the match off of a Noah Anthony free kick just outside the 18-yard box to win the game for the Thunder.
Wheaton (22-3-0) will compete in the championship match for the fifth time in school history at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Thunder will face Tufts. Saturday's match against the Jumbos will be the final match at Wheaton for coach Mike Giuliano, who announced in May that the 2014 season would be his final campaign with the Thunder before he heads to a new position in Atlanta, Georgia, in January 2015.
Oneonta (21-1-2) put early pressure on, however, the Thunder responded with some early shots. Wheaton's Adam Blackman was fouled in the penalty box to set up a penalty kick for senior Noah Anthony (St. Charles North). Anthony coolly converted the opportunity as the entered the net inside the right post to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead just 15:19 into the match.
Wheaton continued to pressure the Dragons, however, SUNY Oneonta countered with pressure around the 25 minute mark and it paid off at 29:26 when Jake Sutherland got on opportunity at an open net and tied the match at 1-1. Less the two minutes later Anthony Passiatore gave the Dragons a 2-1 lead with a goal at 31:43 on a Cory Santangelo. The Dragons maintained a 2-1 lead at halftime.
Early in the second half, Thunder junior Adam Blackman broke free and converted his own open net goal to tie the game at 2-2 at the 51:43 mark of the match. Oneonta appeared to have regained the lead with a few minutes left in regulation with an apparent goal that was waved off by the officials.
The two teams battled through a scoreless first overtime. Thunder goalkeeper Matt Paprocki (Downers Grove North) got a piece of a Dragons shot on goal just 1:15 into the second overtime as the shot went of the post and the game remained tied thanks to Paprocki's work. A few minutes later, the Dragons fouled Wheaton's Marshall Hollingsworth (Libertyville) just at the edge of the 18-yard box and Noah Anthony's free kick found Stephen Golz at the opposite corner of the net and Golz headed the ball in for his 21st goal of the season.
"We haven't gotten behind very often this year, but we had a lot of confidence that we could rally back," Giuliano said. "The shot total told us in the first half of play that we would still be OK, despite trailing 2-1. I am really proud of our guys."