Indianapolis, Ind. - What the Green Bay men's soccer team wasn't able to do during the regular season, they did when it mattered most, beat Valparaiso.
Junior Scott Raymonds (Brookfield, Wis.) had a goal and an assist as the Phoenix beat Valaparaiso in the Horizon League semifinal 3-1 to advance to Sunday's championship game.
"It's nice to get a game that we lost earlier in the season. Valpo is a very tough team and they made the game very difficult but our guys did a very good job defensively not allowing a shot on goal until the 78th minute," said head coach Tom Poitras.
At the 12:42 mark David Znaty (Hadera, Israel) scored on a header from four yards out after Raymonds found him on a cross kick. Green Bay led 1-0 at the break and outshot Valparaiso 8-3 while both teams finished with a pair of corner kicks at the half.
With 17 minutes left to play in regulation, Raymonds was on the receiving end of an assist when David Prochazka (Gothenburg, Sweden) found him on a long free kick from the left wing. Raymonds gave Green Bay the 2-0 lead scoring his fourth goal of the season.
Shortly after Dan Krueger (Fridley, Minn.) came into the game for the Phoenix, JC Banks (Milwaukee, Wis.) found him on the top of the box on the left side. Krueger scored his first goal of the season from 18 yards out to secure the victory.
"We've gotten scoring from a lot of different guys this season and today was no exception. Other guys stepped up when they needed to," said Poitras.
Knocking on the door of their ninth shutout of the season, Valparaiso's Danny Jeftich got one past goalie Ryan Wehking (St. Louis, Mo.) off a free kick from 25 yards out.
The Phoenix finished the game outshooting the Crusders 13-8 and 4-2 on corner kicks.
Green Bay will play in the Horizon League Championship game on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET against Butler who beat Cleveland State 2-1 in the other semifinal matchup. The game will be broadcast live on horizonleaguenetwork.tv.
Interview with Head Coach Tom Poitras
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