Conway – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team hosted the Valparaiso Crusaders for their final home conference match of the season on Saturday night. After celebrating the careers of eight players who were playing in the final home MVC match, the Bears extended their MVC winning streak to five straight matches, taking down the Crusaders 3-2.
Central Arkansas (7-8-0, 5-1-0 MVC) controlled the ball during the first half, getting shots on goal from
Chris Holmes and
Niklas Brodacki in the fifth minute and another from
Kyosuke Kubota in the 21
st minute. Brodacki would add another shot on goal in the 22
nd minute, but it would be Valparaiso (7-6-1, 3-3-1 MVC) who would strike first, as Raphael Mentzingen slipped a pass to Adan Garcia, who finished to the left post to put Valpo up 1-0 in the 24
th minute. UCA would find an equalizer in the 38
th minute, as
Christian Ilia fed
Daltyn Knutson, who headed the ball across the box to Holmes, who finished bottom-right for his second goal of the season.
The Crusaders would retake the lead in the 47
th minute, when Ramone Howell played a ball over the UCA defense to Mentzinger, who fired a rocket under the crossbar for his sixth goal of the season, but Brodacki would find another equalizer for the Bears just three minutes later, gathering the rebound when Ilia's shot was saved by Valpo keeper Nacho Miras and putting it away from three yards out for his MVC-leading tenth goal of the season. The sides would trade shots over the next 25 minutes, before the Bears would get the game-winner in the 84
th minute.
Pepe San Roman would feed Brodacki, who played a pass to the top of the box for
Lucas Genty, who fired off a curling shot past a diving Miras and just inside the right post for his first goal of the season.
"Tonight was a night that need experienced guys to pull us out of trouble, really three times, because Valparaiso isn't a team that's going to go to sleep in overtime," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "We knew that going to overtime wasn't going to favor us necessarily, even though we're at home, so getting that goal to win it before the end of regulation was massive. Three times we pulled ourselves up and it was just and amazing fight from our boys."
On the night, the Bears outshot the Crusaders 21 to eight, and held an 11 to three advantage in shots on goal. Brodacki led the UCA attack, putting three of his four shots on goal, while Holmes, Ilia, and Genty each put a pair of shots on frame and Kubota and Knutson both had one shot on target. In goal,
Marc Olsen made one save to earn the win.
"I think tonight was overall not our best defensive game, but we got some big defensive plays when it really counted," said Duncan. "
Tyler Ridener came in and did an exceptional job of filling in on senior night. What a special moment for him to come in and just shut the game down and eliminate chance after chance for them. I'm really proud of him, and really the whole group to finish that game the way that they did."
Central Arkansas closes out Missouri Valley Conference play with a pair of road matches, heading to Evansville on Tuesday and Bradley next Saturday.
"We've been trying the best we can to manage fatigue, manage how we train, and manage minutes," said Duncan. "I think, for us, it's going to be a matter of gutting out the week. It's not going to be easy, but Evansville had to travel from Des Moines tonight, so they aren't going to be fresh either."
