Knight's Golden Goal Sends Men's Soccer into Semi's
Delray Beach, FL - It may go down as the craziest goal of the season but Adam Knight (SR/Wakefield, England)'s golden goal in the 97th minute of overtime propels the Hastings College men's soccer team into the semifinals with the 2-1 victory over West Virginia Tech on Wednesday.
After fighting to a 1-1 tie after 90 minutes, it did seem as if the Broncos were creating the better of the chances in the overtime period leading up to Knight's goal.
Following two quick throw ins for the Golden Bears, Knight would corral the ball on his end, elude a couple of defenders working his way down the left side. He would attempt to send the ball into the box but it would get deflected towards goal where the ball appeared to slip through the keepers hands and into the side net for the game winner.
Head Coach Aaron Champenoy talked about the sequence leading up to the game winner, "When Knight went on the run and with the angle and the guys they have, I couldn't' tell if it took a deflection or not but the ball tucked into the top corner and turned into something special."
That something special sent the Broncos into a frenzy knowing this was the first time the team had been to the semifinals since 2011 when the team finished second. The year previous, Hastings ran the table all the way to a national title going 25-0.
Things did not get off to the start HC was looking for as WVTU would strike first in the 32nd minute when Francisco Neto ripped a shot just inside the 18 yard box past Joe White (JR/London, England) for the 1-0 lead.
That score would remain the same into the 50th minute when Brayant Toro (FR/Cali, Colombia) would get taken down in the box setting up a penalty kick for the nations leading scorer Daniel Whitehall (SO/Warrington, England). Whithall would then beat keeper Hunter Moles to his right to tie the game 1-1 and record his 34th goal of the season.
"It's the same message calm down stay patient and let it happen," Champenoy said when asked about his message at halftime. "Weve been here before started the season against USAO down 1-0 and we knew we had a goal in us but we just needed to keep pressing and the goal would come."
That goal would help force overtime which led to the Knight game winner to send the Broncos into the semifinals.
White finished the game with three saves as Hastings out shot West Virginia Tech 20-to-7.
Hastings is now 22-0-1 and will now face Grand View in the semifinals on Friday at 3:00 p.m. as the Vikings upset the No. 4 overall seed Northwestern Ohio 1-0
