Houghton Defeats
Roberts 2-0,
Advances to Final
Four
Houghton, N.Y.—The
Houghton College
men’s soccer team
defeated American
Mideast Conference
(AMC) North Division
rival Roberts
Wesleyan College 2-0
Wednesday night at
Burke Field to
advance to the
National Association
of Intercollegiate
Athletics’ (NAIA)
Region IX Final
Four.
The
Highlanders got
goals from Austin
Beck and Steve
Grudda—both on
assists from
Jonathan Brooks—to
take the AMC
Qualifier game.
Beck’s
came in the 13th
minute on a long
ball Brooks hit from
midfield. With Beck
pressuring, a Raider
defender trying to
step over the ball
stepped on it
instead and fell.
That put Beck in
alone on goalkeeper
Joe Marino and as
Marino came out to
challenge him Beck
slid the ball
between Marino’s
legs and into the
empty net (pictured
at right, above,
with reaction
below).
Houghton continued
to pressure
throughout, but the
first half ended
1-0.
“We were very good in the first half,” said Matthew Webb,
Houghton’s head
coach, “and we knew
they’d come at us in
the second half.”
The Raiders did—applying pressure immediately at the
start of the second
half. After the
first five minutes,
though, Houghton’s
midfield started to
win the ball more
often and the
pressure eased as
play evened out. “It
got a little scary
sometimes,” Webb
said, “but we hung
in.”
As the game passed the 75-minute mark, though, the
Raiders threw
numbers forward and
stepped up the
pressure again. The
flow of the game had
to bring Houghton’s
team uncomfortable
memories of the
first meeting
between these two
teams earlier this
year. In that one,
Houghton had led
throughout only to
give up a goal in
the last minute of
regulation and tie
1-1.
“That’s been a problem for us in some games this year,”
Webb said, “There
are times that we
haven’t been able to
finish off our
counter-attack
opportunities and it
has cost us.”
Not this time.
With less than four minutes left, Brooks took the ball up
the right side and
into the Raiders’
end where he got off
a cross that was
right on Grudda’s
foot. Grudda hit it
hard past the
helpless Marino to
make the score 2-0.
“Brooks really delivered,” Webb said after the game, “He
had assists on both
goals and played
well. Roberts is a
good team, so this
is a great win. Now
we have to get ready
for Rio.”
That would be the University of Rio Grande Redmen, whom
Houghton, now 9-3-5,
will travel to play
on Saturday in the
semifinals of the
Region IX Final
Four.
