Saturday afternoon felt like a sucker punch for men’s soccer. In spite of promising play throughout regulation time, which saw Wesleyan out¬shoot Williams by a tally of 19 to 7, the Cardinals fell at the hands of an Ephmen golden goal with less than 7 seconds remaining in double overtime for a 2-1 loss.
The goal followed a Williams cor¬ner kick, as Ephman Kiel Bonhomme ’11 fired a shot from the center of the box that deflected off the top of the head of Chris Kuehn ’13 and sailed over goaltender Adam Purdy ’13, just barely eluding both players.
Wesleyan had been playing the final 2 minutes with a man down, fol¬lowing a savvy and aggressive maneu¬ver by defender Cabell Maddux ’13. Maddux fouled a Williams’ player to spoil a breakaway in action and prevent a probable goal, sacrificing himself in the process by earning a red card. The Cards will be sure to miss Maddox during their upcoming game this Wednesday, as his play, along with the rest of the back four, stood out as one of the bright spots of the contest.
Other notable performances came from midfielders Zach Dixon ’12 and Steve Paresi ’12, whose combined te¬nacity helped anchor the Cardinal at¬tack.
Scoring commenced in the 17th minute as a deft one-touch by Williams’ forward and co-captain Gaston Kelly ’11 trickled into the back right corner of Wesleyan’s net. Yet in spite of this early conversion, the Cards maintained cool heads and kept the Ephs on the defensive. However, Wesleyan’s inabil¬ity to close would become the story of the day.
“We weren’t very clinical,” for¬ward Noah Schlesinger ’13 remarked afterward.
Indeed, in spite of their consis¬tent barrage of shots, Wesleyan trailed 1-0 until just 10:42 remained. As the tension waxed to a palpable level, for¬ward Austin Woolridge ’11 received a pass from Dixon and promptly relieved the anxious redbirds by ripping a shot into the top right corner of the net. The crowd erupted and it appeared the home team had finally harnessed some elusive momentum.
As regulation time expired, things looked up for Wesleyan. The Cards had clearly controlled the ball better than Williams, and it almost seemed a fluke that only 1 of their shots had found the net. Unfortunately, overtime was a different story. Williams now had Wesleyan on the defensive, taking 9 shots to the Cardinals’ 1. Just as it seemed the Cards would survive the Ephs’ relentless overtime effort, the men in red had the wind knocked out of them.
Williams maintained their posi¬tion atop NESCAC and New England with the win over #2 seed Wesleyan, while increasing their record over the past 22 games versus their Little Three