Late Goals Force Statesmen to Settle for 2-2 Draw

Oskaloosa–The Statesmen men’s soccer team was forced to hold off on celebrating as two second-half goals forced a 2-2 tie against Grand View in a Heart of America Athletic Conference matchup Wednesday.

All is far from lost for No. 7 William Penn (10-0-7, 8-0-5 Heart). The navy and gold now have 29 points, ahead of Missouri Valley (27 points) and Grand View (26). Many scenarios exist for the Statesmen to take the title, but the easiest is obviously just winning against Graceland in Lamoni on Saturday (7:30 p.m. start).

William Penn got off to a hot start when Javier Perez (So., Alicante, Spain, Business Management) found the back of the net, breaking the tie in the 17th minute. WPU turned up the pressure late in the first half, recording two shots just 45 seconds apart. The second attempt resulted in a Statesmen goal, as Hector Bastos (So., Vitoria, Brazil, Computer Science) beat the GVU goalkeeper with assists from Shahin Adwan (Jr., Aarau, Switzerland, Business Management) and Alexander Greaves (Sr., Hertford, England, Sports Management). The Statesmen took a 2-0 lead going into halftime.

The Vikings (9-5-3, 8-3-2 Heart) struggled to get anything going until the 64:46 mark when they struck, cutting the WPU lead in half. Disaster struck the Statesmen in the 90th minute as Grand View finished its comeback with the equalizer.

Both teams were almost identical statistically, finishing with 11 shots apiece, but the Vikings took a slight edge in shots on goal at 7-6.