Concordia's Joey Graham scored the game-tying goal with 26 seconds left to play.
Last-Minute Goals Propel Concordia to NAIA Shootout Win
IRVINE, Calif.—Twenty six and eleven. The first figure represents the number of seconds the Concordia (Ore.) men’s soccer team had left for an equalizing goal against Concordia (Calif.) in the opening round of the NAIA National Championships while the second number is how many seconds it took for the Cavaliers to respond.
After watching the ninth-ranked Eagles grab the go-ahead goal with 37 seconds left to play, the Cavaliers responded with a game-tying score 11 seconds later to force overtime, where the Concordia squad from Portland survived 20 minutes of scoreless action and took a 9-8 advantage in penalty kicks to advance to the second round of the NAIA Championships.
“We had a team today that was very determined to stick to the plot. The guys came out, took the game plan and added a level of determination and effort that I haven’t seen from this team thus far this year,” Birkey said. “They refused to die today. It was classic Navy soccer.”
With the remainder of the tournament played in Fresno, Calif., Concordia will No. 8–seeded Hastings (Neb.) on No. 2 with a 7 p.m. kickoff. Hastings also escaped a penalty kick match in the opening round with a 4-2 shootout win against Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) after two extra sessions nodded at 1-1.
CU-Irvine’s Jon Fahey netted an early goal in the first half, at 11:25, from a short cross by Kyle Hollomon, but the game was tied at 1-1 heading into halftime thanks to a 41st-minute goal from Ryan Hill, who had entered the game two minutes prior to the successful shot.
The Cavaliers would take a 2-1 lead with a Will Snow header with an assist from Bryan Iotte in the 63rd minute while a Holloman score would square the match a second time with an unassisted loose-ball blast at the 77:20 mark.
Irvine would nearly terminate any thoughts of an overtime period with a successful conversion on a free kick by Eric Mendoza in the 90th minute.
The Cavaliers answered what appeared to be the Eagles' high point of the season with an astoundingly quick equalizer from the foot of Joey Graham, who broke through with a one-on-one opportunity to tie the game with just 24 seconds left on the clock and a mere 11 seconds after Mendoza's dramatic go-ahead goal.
Despite five shot attempts in the two overtime periods, the two teams failed to record a goal in the extra 20 minutes of play sending the match to penalty kicks for the decider on who would advance in the national tournament.
After Concordia posted scores in their first nine PK attempts, the final coming via the foot of Jon Larsen, CU senior keeper Garrett Staples would prevent Irvine’s next shot to secure a spot in the second round.
Staples, a three-time NAIA honorable mention All-American, recorded a career-high 11 saves in the match.
“It was one for the books,” Birkey said. “Staples was clearly the player of the game. Not many goalkeepers in the country can stop the type of shots that he faced today.”
The Eagles end their season at 12-6-2, while the Cavaliers move to 14-5-2.