EUGENE, Ore. – On the cusp of their first victory of the season with just 15 minutes to play, the Bushnell University men’s soccer team was shocked by a four-goal onslaught as Northwest University pulled off a 5-2 Cascade Conference victory on Monday.
It may go down as the craziest game in Beacon history, but it didn’t start that way. The Eagles wasted no time in planting a goal in the net, earning a penalty kick in the ninth minute, which Elliot Misic fired home.
The teams played an even first-half from that point with Northwest owning just a 4-2 shot advantage. The Beacons came out of the intermission inspired and just five minutes in, senior Ethan Crofts headed in a loose ball in front of the net. Kyle Aure had fired a rocket that was saved by NU keeper Brandon Karberg, but the goal was left vulnerable and Crofts took advantage, scoring his first career goal in his final home game.
For Bushnell, it was the first goal since February 19, and first goal in CCC play, a stretch of over 700 minutes. The new gap between goals proved to be significantly smaller as Aure claimed a goal of his own just 20 minutes later.
The Beacons had dominated the time of possession to that point and were holding their first second-half lead of the season. All signs pointed to a senior day success story until the 75th minute.
Bushnell owned a 7-3 shot advantage to that point of the half, but in the final 15 minutes the Eagles took nine shots, including four that found the back of the net within a six-minute span.
Titus Nickson scored on a rebound off a saved Dylan Murphy shot with 15 minutes to play, tying the game at 2-2. Three minutes later, Kyle Han blasted a 35-yard strike that found the top corner of the goal for the game-winner.
The Eagles needed just 40 seconds to collect an insurance goal, courtesy of Benjamin Banks-Forder. Then in the 81st minute, Nickson headed in a corner kick from Leon Bormann to ice the victory.
Northwest (4-4-1, 2-3-1 CCC) finished the game with a 16-12 edge in shots. Karberg made three saves in the win. For the Beacons, Julian Hernandez collected eight saves between the pipes. Aure led all players with six shot attempts including three shots-on-goal.
“We were gutted to lose this game tonight,” said head coach Erik Carrazco. “The boys played very well and it was especially great to get two in the back of the net. We put ourselves in a position to win, but couldn’t finish it. We just need to dust ourselves off and prepare for next week.”
The Beacons (0-10, 0-8) will close out the season next week on the road, traveling to face Warner Pacific for a pair of games. The teams will play next Monday and Tuesday with 2:00 pm kick-offs.