Irvine, CALIF. - On the day of Halloween the CUI men's soccer team gave Eagle fans a scare in the matchup against the Sharks of Hawaii Pacific. The Green and Gold took a 3-2 overtime victory in the PacWest Conference battle.
First half action was slow and the Eagles controlled the pace. It was a mental battle from beginning to end.
In the 34th minute of action the defensive backline specialist Michael Oakson sent a ball deep to teammate Vicente Flores who took one dribble and converted the first goal of the match.
Oakson continued to apply pressure to the Shark defense. With 30 seconds remaining in the half, The Green and Gold defender netted the second goal of the match assisted by midfielder Nick Aquino. The score took the Eagles into the half with a 2-0 lead.
Second half was underway, and Concordia had no time to relax. According to many players and assistant coach Erik Kirsch, 2-0 is the most dangerous score to hold in soccer.
The Sharks would not give up. In the 82nd minute of the contest sophomore forward Makana Srivongsana cut the Eagles lead 2-1.
Unfortunately for CUI, spooky season, in Halloween festivity, came to fruition and HPU found the net with 15 seconds remaining in the second half. The score was knotted up 2-2 and the two squads headed into overtime.
Overtime went exactly how the Eagles planned and with about 15 seconds remaining Alfonso Quezada delivered a cross to Oakson who headed the ball to Caley Powers for the Golden Goal and the 3-2 victory in overtime.
"I thought we controlled most of the game, but we had a couple of mental lapses and HPU jumped on them," said head coach Chris Gould. "Before the overtime, you could hear how our guys were speaking and how confident we were… I am proud of how we responded."
The Eagles are not new to overtime games and were ready for the moment.
"We've trained for overtime all season long, we knew what we had to do," said Powers. "I am proud of the team and how we knew it was not over."
