VALPARAISO, Ind. - The
Green Bay (10-2-2, 4-2-0) men's soccer team put up a great fight to come from
behind and force Saturday's game against Valparaiso (6-6-1, 2-2-1) into
overtime. Unfortunately that's where it ended for the Phoenix as they fell 3-2
to the Crusaders.
"I give alot of credit to Valpo for bogging the game down and not giving us any real room to play today. They did a good job keeping us tied up," said head coach Tom Poitras.
Just under 14 minutes into the first half Green Bay's David Znaty (Hadera, Israel) scored his sixth goal of the season off a free kick.
Znaty kicked the ball into the lower left corner of the goal from about 24
yards out on the right side to give Green Bay the 1-0 lead.
During the 40th minute Valparaiso answered when
Sam Haines scored off a header from a cross pass on the right side tying it up
1-1 at the break.
Green Bay outshot Valpo 9-2 and 4-1 on corner kicks in the
first period of play.
In the second period Valparaiso picked up right where they
left off when the Crusaders took a 2-1 lead with Roby Del Giudice's goal off a
give-and-go in the 58th minute.
With 1:36 left to play in the second half the Phoenix tied
it up 2-2 to force overtime. The tying goal was very similar to Green Bay's
first in the fact that it came off a free-kick about 20 yards from the goal and
once again came off the foot of Znaty.
In overtime Valparaiso was too much for the Phoenix as Brendan
Roth got a shot past goalie Ryan Wehking (St. Louis, Mo.) to seal the 3-2 win, "our guys fought hard to tie the match but in the end we need to do a better job defensively," said Poitras.
Green Bay will have a week off to prepare for their final
two home games of the regular season. The Phoenix will host Oral Roberts on
Sunday, Oct. 25 at noon and Milwaukee on Friday, Oct. 30 at 7p.m.
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