Wolves Win Overtime Thriller on Senior Night
Paul Starkebaum, Sports Information Director
College Place, Wash. – It took 99:52 before a header from Damien Dennis gave the Wolves the victory over Multnomah University on Saturday night. Walla Walla celebrated its four graduating seniors with an offensive explosion, winning 5-4 in overtime.
The evening began with Walla Walla recognizing Aaron Martinez, Andrew Nye, Anibal Castillo, and Jonathan De Leon in the pre-game Senior Recognition. Right from the get-go, both teams seemed to have their energy flowing. Just three and half minutes into the match, Multnomah's Travis Gardner took advantage of a mishandled ball and tapped in the opening goal of the match to put the Lions up 1-0.
Around the ten minute mark, Walla Walla advanced the ball quickly up the field for a scoring opportunity. Multnomah's keeper attempted to kick the ball out of harm's way but Walla Walla's Anibal Castillo got a foot on it and sent it straight back into the goal to tie the match up 1-1. In the 37
th minute, Multnomah took the lead back after a successful penalty kick from Hayden Smedley. However, just minutes later, Diego Chavez rebounded a missed shot and equalized with a finish into the right side of the goal, evening the score at 2-2 going into the half.
The fireworks started early in the second half, with the Wolves Emmett Semple scoring back-to-back goals in the first 11 minutes of the period. The first came off a throw-in from Andrew Nye just 40 seconds into the half. Semple took one touch to possess, spun, and drilled a low finish across the face of goal. Ten minutes later, Zac Christensen used a corner kick to setup Semple for a header, who again went to the bottom right corner, and put Walla Walla up 4-2.
The Lions refused to back down, and two minutes after Emmett's second goal, Noe Favila captured a loose ball in the Wolves box and slammed home a goal to put Multnomah within one. Favila then set up teammate Nicolas Mboungou for a shot on the right side that was sent into the opposite corner of the net to tie the match up 4-4.
For the next 23 minutes, neither team was able to score a goal. Both had good chances but failed to convert. Multnomah came very close with just a few minutes left in regulation when Wolves keeper Kohl Tomcho aggressively went for one of his 14 saves on the left side of the box, exposing the goal. A Multnomah player took a shot that looked as if it would find the top of the net but Damien Dennis cleared it with an incredible flick of his head, levitating off the ground and tipping it just up and over the crossbar, saving what would have no doubt been a goal.
Late in overtime, after having applied little pressure to the Lions in the final 30 minutes, Walla Walla's Zac Christensen nailed a free kick from 30 yards out into the middle of the box to Damien Dennis for a header that dribbled into the goal just before time expired to give Walla Walla its first Cascade Conference victory in over three years.
Five goals in a single match in the most for the Wolves since 2014 and Saturday night's victory is the first for Walla Walla as a member of the Cascade Conference.