Messiah wins in overtime
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| Messiah sophomore Jeremy
Payne breaks through as he sets up the winning goal by teammate
Mike Kovach Photo by Eric Kelley, d3photography.com |
For the third time in four years, Messiah is returning to the championship match as the Falcons edged Loras 1-0 in overtime.
Scroll down for Chris Shirk's post-game analysis
Loras and Messiah battled through a scoreless first half where the Duhawks outshot the Falcons 7-6 and had a slight edge in dangerous opportunities.
As the second half progressed, Loras and Messiah each had momentum swings to their benefit, but as the match moved in to the final 15 minutes, Loras had an increasing number of opportunities in spite of the midfield control and shot advantage by Messiah (12-7). With 10 minutes to play, Loras senior Ryan Schneider had a long shot that went off the post, as well as two dangerous dangerous runs into the box by the Duhawks.
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| Loras sophomore Mike Pizzello
takes the ball from Messiah sophomore Brian Ramirez Photo by Eric Kelley, d3photography.com |
But Messiah countered and created chances of their own. With five to play, Messiah sophomore Mike Kovach had a hard shot that tested Dylan Milkent. Then in overtime, sophomore Jack Thompson had a good opportunity from the top of the 18, but Milkent again made the save.
Minutes after a great run by Loras and a shot just wide of the net, Kovach won the match off a low crossing pass from sophomore Jeremy Payne - a cross that that was pushed off the line by Milkent. Payne created the opportunity by beating his defender to the endline, after a run down the right side, and working the ball into a crowded box.
Milkent had five saves for Loras, and Brandon West had four for Messiah.
Loras ends their season at 23-2-1, while Messiah improves to 22-0-2 and will face Ohio Northern for the national championship on Saturday at 1:30 pm CT.
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| Loras junior Dan Figura sends
in a shot against Messiah Photo by Eric Kelley, d3photography.com |
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| Loras senior Malcolm
Calbert Photo by Eric Kelley, d3photography.com |
Post-game Analysis
In the end we got the thrilling, back-and-forth, heavyweight bout we wanted and expected, but for the opening quarter one could be forgiven for thinking Messiah was overrated. The two-week layoff seemed to show on the Falcons while Loras bolted out of the gates with high energy and intensity leaving Messiah a step behind. The Duhawks' speed and directness troubled the eight-time champions and the Falcon backline did much more chasing than they are used to doing. The pace favored Loras and Messiah seemed to get caught up in it to their detriment. However, the IIAC champions could not expect to hold the upperhand throughout the full match, and really needed to make Messiah pay for their slow start. But despite creating dangerous opportunities, the Duhawks were unable to capitalize before the game become more of a 50-50 affair in the middle part of the half. The tide would turn and the pace would slow down some as Messiah would finally impose some of their will on the game in the later stages of the half, but 0-0 would be the score at halftime.
Messiah came out of the break on top in a reversal of the first half. Most of those first ten to fifteen minutes of the half were spent in Loras's defensive half with just a handful of Duhawk attacking forays. However, those few counterattacks seemed to produce even better chances to open the scoring than did Messiah's more patient, sustained pressure. For the remainder of the second stanza possession favored the Falcons as both sides got to play their preferred style when with the ball. Messiah would fire more shots but Loras still seemed the more dangerous team though to no avail as regulation ended 0-0. Messiah could be faulted for being too patient in the offensive third, seemingly lacking the desire take players on or to "have a go" when opportunities to shoot presented themselves. Loras simply wasn't clinical enough as a host of opportunities went wasted with poor finishing and not making the extra pass to an open teammate. Production for their forwards has been an issue all season and remained so today.
Overtime was much of the same, both teams doing their thing and creating moments of excitement and nervousness. Both teams seemed to be tiring despite their depth and liberal use of substitutes. A classic duel of the top two ranked teams in the nation came to a sudden end when Messiah's Mike Kovach was quick to touch home from close range when a cross from the right was blocked and fell to his feet. On the whole, the game played out pretty much as expected, with both team's many strengths and few weaknesses all being in evidence.
