Babson Park, Mass. - Max Swanson scored the
game-winning goal with eight seconds remaining in the second
overtime to lift the second-seeded Wheaton College Lyons to a
thrilling 3-2 victory over sixth-seeded Clark University in the
second semifinal of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic
Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Soccer Championship Tournament at
Babson's Hartwell-Rogers Field on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Lyons (18-3-1), ranked sixth in the region by the
NCAA and 18th in the country by the NSCAA, advanced to Sunday's
championship game, where they will meet top-seeded Babson at 1
p.m.
Despite a valiant effort, the Cougars, who played a man down for
the final 60 minutes of play due to a red card, saw their season
come to a close with a record of 9-7-2.
The two teams played evenly in the scoreless first half, which saw
Wheaton enter the break with a slight 9-7 edge in shots. Clark's
red card then opened the game up for the Lyons, who mounted a
commanding 17-3 shot advantage in the second stanza.
Wheaton netted the game's first goal in the 57th minute, as junior
David Winrow took a corner kick from David Turina in the middle of
the field and fired a 25-yard missile into the upper right corner
for his first goal of the season at 56:54. Clark would answer less
than seven minutes later, as junior Tim
Doenmez (Dublin, N.H.) found the lower right corner
from the left side for his sixth of the year at 63:44.
The Lyons regained the lead when Cecil Jeffrey collected the ball
at the top of the box, spun around a defender, and placed a shot
inside the right post for his third of the season at 80:26.
However, the Cougars rallied once again off the ensuing kickoff, as
freshman Gianluca
Ranallo (Scarsdale, N.Y.) hit a long serve from the
right side that was headed over the keeper and in by senior
Preben
Gietz (Waterloo, Belgium) at 81:08. Gietz's first goal
of the fall evened the score at 2-2, and neither team would score
in the final 8:52 of regulation as the contest headed into
overtime.
Wheaton continued to add to its shot advantage in the extra
sessions, outshooting Clark 3-0 in the first OT and 4-0 in the
second. However, the Lyons were kept off the board until the final
10 seconds of play, when Swanson took a pass from sophomore Chris
Thomas on the right side and chipped it past Clark keeper
Ryan
King (Brimfield, Mass.) for the game-winning goal with
just eight ticks remaining. It was Swanson's fifth goal of the
season, and it gave the Lyons the thrilling 3-2 victory.
King was outstanding in defeat for the Cougars, finishing with 10
saves. Junior Cole Davidson turned away one shot in earning the win
for Wheaton.
The top two seeds in the conference tourney, Babson and Wheaton
will now meet in the title game for the fourth time since the
inception of the NEWMAC in 1998. Wheaton has won all three of the
previous meetings, topping the Beavers in 2000, 2006, and 2007.