After defeating Missouri Valley College 2-1 in overtime Oct. 30, lightning did not strike twice for the Baker University men’s soccer team Wednesday against the Vikings as it lost to MVC in the conference tournament semifinals after seven rounds of penalty kicks.
The Vikings grabbed a 1-0 lead at the 14:55 mark on a goal from Thiago Ferreira. That lead would stand for the remainder of the first half.
The Wildcats controlled possession for the majority of the second half and broke through to tie it at 1-1 on a header by junior Andy Griffin off a corner kick from senior Ethan Bauer. The goal for Griffin came with just less than 17 minutes remaining in regulation and it was his seventh of the season.
The game would stay tied at 1-1 for the rest of the second half and for the two 10-minute overtime periods to send it into penalty kicks between the Vikings and Wildcats.
While junior Matt Bickley played between the pipes for the Wildcats for the 90 minutes of regulation and two overtimes, head coach Nate Houser called upon senior Brendan Allen to be the goalkeeper for the penalty kicks.
Senior Nick Aguilar stepped up to take the first penalty kick for BU and converted his attempt by pushing the ball between the outstretched arm of MVC goalkeeper Josh Wells and the right post. Nicholas Alexander answered with a goal against Allen to tie it at 1-1 after the first round.
Senior Donny George was up second for BU and was true on his shot, but Ferreira responded by making his attempt to even it at 2-2.
Next up for the ‘Cats was Bauer, but Wells was able to stop the strike from the Baker forward. Raul Beneit followed the miss by Bauer with a shot past Allen to give the Vikings a 3-2 edge.
The Wildcats would not back down, however, as Griffin came up to drill his kick by Wells to even it up at 3-3. Allen then stepped up to stop Carlos Berastain’s shot to keep it deadlocked at 3-3 after four rounds.
Senior Nate Byarlay gave the lead back the Wildcats as he converted his shot, but Alberto Linan Gomez was successful on his attempt as well to make it 4-4.
Things then turned south for the Wildcats, though, as senior Josh Rydberg was unable to make his shot past Wells. The MVC goalkeeper had the opportunity to end it with a kick of his own, but his attempt was no good and it remained tied at 4-4 through six rounds.
Junior Ben Coyle stepped up next for the Wildcats, but his shot went over the crossbar and gave the Vikings another chance to win it. Mark Taylor capitalized by sending his shot past Allen and giving the Vikings a 5-4 advantage after seven rounds to put Missouri Valley in the conference tournament title game.
The Vikings will square of against Benedictine College in Atchison after the Ravens outlasted MidAmerica Nazarene University in penalty kicks as well.
The Wildcats are 8-5-5 after being knocked out of the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament and will await to hear if they will get an at-large bid to the national tournament. The pairings for the 32 team tournament will be announced Sunday. BU was ranked No. 32 with 35 votes in the polls entering Wednesday’s game against the Vikings.
