Elsah, IL – Principia College Men's Soccer hosted Iowa Wesleyan in their final regular-season match of the season on Saturday afternoon. Principia celebrated senior day for their one senior,
Connor Goering. Goering has brought great value to the program during his four years with the Principia Men's Soccer program and he will be missed.
A Look at the Game – The Principia men played a strong game against a solid opponent in Iowa Wesleyan. In the first half, Principia quickly got on the front foot with a couple of shots in the opening 10 minutes. In the 14
th minute though, Iowa collected the ball outside of Principia's box and chipped a ball over the back line that fell to the feet of Derrick Atuahene, who sent the ball into the top right corner (Principia 0, Iowa Wesleyan 1). The first half went back and forth, but Principia maintained a hold on the game. In the 40
th minute, the Panthers' hard work paid off as
Cole Heinbaugh picked the ball off of a Tiger defender and dribbled past the goalkeeper, passing the ball into an open net. The game was tied 1-1 going into halftime.
Iowa Wesleyan brought more energy into the second half and found more chances, but it continued to be an even game.
Elias Simpson had a standout goalkeeping performance for Principia. In the 85
th minute, Iowa had a clear chance inside of the box and looked like they would take the lead, but Simpson made an incredible double save to keep the game tied. Both teams failed to capitalize on their chances in the second half, and the game remained knotted at 1-1 after 90 minutes, sending it into golden goal overtime.
The game came to a disappointing conclusion for Principia after nine minutes of overtime. Iowa Wesleyan sent a cross into the box that was controlled with a hand – missed by the referee – and pushed into the back of the net to give the Tigers the win, 2-1.
Good to Know
- Elias Simpson made 8 saves and played an outstanding game
- Seth Arens continued to impress in his new role at center back, alongside E.G. Pierce who had a strong aerial presence in the game
- Cole Heinbaugh scored his sixth goal for the Panthers this season
- Connor Goering had a strong performance in his final regular-season match for Principia
Coach Quote
"It's always tough to lose, and even tougher to lose in overtime when we felt so close to earning a good result. What we are most focused on is continuing to be the most united team that we can be. We have made tremendous progress as a group and even just in this last week. The key takeaways from this game are that the team forged a stronger sense of trust, that we still have a tremendous amount of fight left, and that despite the loss we believe in ourselves a little bit more. There were some great glimpses of success through our united effort. This team still has another gear and I'm excited that we get the SLIAC tournament to find it."
Box Score: https://principiaathletics.com/sports/mens-soccer/stats/2020-2021/iowa-wesleyan-college/boxscore/6941
Up Next- The Principia Men have a quick turnaround as the SLIAC tournament gets started on Monday with a play-in game between Principia (8 seed) and Eureka (9 seed). The play-in game will be played at 5:30 PM on Monday (April 19
th) on Principia's turf.
