In the 100th minute, senior midfielder Ian McGrath scored a golden goal to give the University of Evansville men’s soccer team a 2-1 overtime victory over Central Arkansas on Tuesday night at Arad McCutchan Stadium.
“We say it all the time, there’s no give up, there’s no quit, there’s no lack of fight in this team,” said Aces head coach Marshall Ray. “We’ve done a great job on our home field in overtime games this season and last year of always coming back and competing and believing in ourselves and trying to find a way to get a result.”
The win is the Aces (8-7-1, 2-3-1 MVC) third this season in overtime matches played at Arad McCutchan Stadium.
McGrath and sophomore forward Ben Weber each scored and recorded an assist to lead the Aces. In goal, senior Matthew Keller earned his sixth victory of the season, making a pair of saves and allowing one goal. For the Bears (7-9, 5-2 MVC), Niklas Brodacki scored his MVC-best 11th goal of the year in the loss.
Central Arkansas scored first in the 33rd minute as Brodacki broke free through the Aces’ backline and made a long run before slipping it into the back of the net to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
The Aces answered in the 63rd minute as junior forward Zac Blaydes crossed the ball in and found McGrath at the far post. McGrath headed the ball across the face of goal and Weber tapped it past the Bears’ keeper to tie the match at a goal apiece.
Weber nearly had his second goal of the night in the 84th minute as he fired a shot just wide of the far post on a one-on-one opportunity.
Nearly the entire first overtime passed by before Evansville found its game-winner off the foot of McGrath. With just 16 seconds left in the first overtime, sophomore defender Simon Waever launched a throw-in that was headed by senior defender Chris Shuck. The ball traveled deeper into the box where Weber got his head on it and flipped it back to McGrath, who spun and clipped the ball past the Bears’ keeper and in for his fifth game-winning goal of the year.
“Simon had a decent throw, but Chris Shuck really did a lot to get to that ball and flick it on,” said Ray. “(McGrath) has been nicknamed “McClutch” and he finds his way into the game and makes a huge impact for us and he was battling and fought for that last goal.”
In the match, Evansville and Central Arkansas tied with 11 shots each with the Aces owning a slight edge on shots on-goal, 4-3.
