Year Ends with Overtime Loss to MMU
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa–The Statesmen men’s soccer team defeated Mount Mercy in extra play six days ago, but had the tables turned on it Tuesday as it ended the year with a 3-2 loss in a Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Play-In matchup.
#8 seed William Penn, which ends the year at 10-8-1, outshot the ninth-seeded Mustangs 25-21 in the hotly-contested battle that featured eight yellow cards.
MMU (8-10) struck first at the 9:23 mark and then doubled the advantage in the 32nd minute. Fortunately, the Statesmen were able to steal back some momentum before halftime as Diego Navarro (Fr., Madrid, Spain, Mechanical Engineering) scored unassisted at 42:18.
The tally is Navarro’s 16th of the fall, tying Joe Druppel (2004) for the most single-season goals in program history.
WPU remained in a one-goal deficit until the final minutes, but Joey Messina (So., New London, Wis., Information Technology) knotted the game in the 81st minute with the assist awarded to Daniel Hernandez (Sr., Tulare, Calif., Mechanical Engineering). Messina ends 2017 with four goals.
Neither team could break the tie in the waning minutes, sending them to overtime for the second time in the past week. William Penn produced the game-winner last Wednesday, but this time around, and on a bigger stage, Mount Mercy extended its campaign just 1:38 into first OT.
Guillermo Pineda (Fr., Madrid, Spain, Business Management & Communications) recorded seven saves in the loss.
“This is a difficult way for the season to end,” Head Coach Jaymee Highcock said. “I thought that when we tied the game at 2-2 that we were in a good position to win the game. Unfortunately, tonight just did not go the way we wanted it to.”
“We had a positive season, however, and finished with more wins than the previous year,” Highcock added. “I want to thank all the seniors for making this program better and for leaving it in a better position from when they started here.”
The setback ends the collegiate careers of the 2017 senior class of Hector Briceno (Mesa, Ariz., Psychology and Sociology), Alexis Corona (Los Angeles, Calif., Digital Communication), Emannuel Esparza (Posen, Ill., Sports Management), Caleb Pipes-Goulsbra (Lincoln, England, Exercise Science), Hernandez, Gmoh Kanneh (Minneapolis, Minn., Education), Francis Koroma (Brooklyn Park, Minn., General Accounting), Steve Lee (Camberley, England, Exercise Science), Emmanuel Morris (Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management), Eugenio Osborne (Marbella, Spain, Engineering Technology and Applied Mathematics), Diego Sorensen (Buenos Aires, Argentina, Business Management), and Randolph Tamba (Firestone, Liberia, Information Technology).
