Down to the wire, JBU wins thriller
■ The Golden Eagles scored the game-winner with 21.7 seconds remaining.
Every second counts and the John Brown men’s soccer team needed nearly every one of them in its season opener Friday night.
The Golden Eagles scored the game’s only goal with 21.7 seconds remaining as JBU defeated No. 19 Mid-America Nazarene in front of a 2,119 fans at Alumni Field as part of First Friday Futbol — an annual celebration of the first home soccer matches.
With the clock ticking under 30 seconds, freshman Micah Herrmann chipped the ball to freshman Goncalo Verissimo who had a good look at a shot. Verissimo however, passed to his left to Amilcar Gonzalez, who scored easily for the gamewinner.
“That really says a lot about character and what’s important to Goncalo, making such an unselfish pass when he had the opportunity to shoot,” ” said JBU head coach Brenton Benware. “Great pass and also great positioning by Amilcar to put that ball away — really stretched and gave us another option.”
It was one of four shots total for Gonzalez and his second shot-on-goal for the night, and he made this one count. Gonzalez credited Verissimo for the pass.
“Quality — I can’t think him enough,” said Gonzalez, a Springdale native. “I thank my teammates for this moment. This is a glory to God.”
Overtime and the potential for a season-opening draw looked like a real possibility Friday night for the Golden Eagles (1-0), especially after JBU missed a penalty kick in the 82nd minute which would have broken the scoreless tie.
Mid-America Nazarene was called for a handball inside the 18-yard box with 8 minutes, 15 second remaining. However, senior Santiago Vanegas’ PK hit the right post and out of bounds keeping the game scoreless.
“The biggest thing in that moment — we’ve all been there, we’ve all done that — is making sure (Vanegas) stays in the game.,” Benware said. “He did a great job of doing that.”
The game remained scoreless heading into the final seconds before JBU’s last-second heroics.
“It certainly looked like overtime,” Benware said. “When you get under a minute, everybody’s starting to think a little more cautiously.”
It’s the second straight year the Golden Eagles have picked up a one-goal victory over Mid-America Nazarene, having beat the Pioneers 2-1 in Olathe, Kan., last year.
MNU coach Kevin Wardlaw thought JBU may have been offsides on the gamewinning play but the Pioneers will have to live and learn with the result.
“Listen it is what it is,” he said. “It’s those early moments in the season where you’ll be able to look at it on film and be able to talk to the guys about what happens, then you make adjustments and move on.”
John Brown goalkeeper Britt Wisener recorded his first career collegiate shutout and made three saves.
“Again we had some great moments,” Benware said. “Everybody stepped up tonight and played well.”
The Golden Eagles played without key attackers in seniors Kelvin Omondi and Ashby Clark due to injuries. Also senior forward Conner Haney left the game because of a head injury in the first half.
“We sat several key guys tonight,” Benware said. “Kelvin is one of those guys that everybody keeps an eye on. In fact as we were preparing for the game, opposing coach even saw him not dressed out and I think that was a factor for him as well.”
But despite the adversity, the Golden Eagles got the victory in their seasonopener.
“We’ve been preparing ourselves from the first day we got here,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve got a commitment from this group. The group came in focused you know?. We wanted to change things. We wanted to make things better. We came motivated. You could tell fitness-wise we were more prepared compared to other teams, so we showed that grit, we battled to the end and thank God we got the result in the end.”
The Golden Eagles return to action at 4 p.m. Tuesday against Bethel College (Kan.) in North Newton, Kan.