The Ashland University men's soccer team won the program's third GLIAC Tournament championship and its second in the last three seasons by beating Davenport, 3-1, on Sunday (May 2) afternoon in University Center, Mich.
The Eagles (6-4) entered the GLIAC Tournament as the No. 5 seed and beat No. 4-seed Purdue Northwest, top seed and host Saginaw Valley and the No. 6-seed Panthers on their way to the title. Ashland finished the season on a five-game winning streak.
"Full credit to the players," said head coach
Nick Roberts, who wrapped up his first season as Ashland's head coach. "This is a team that was 1-4 at the beginning of the season, but they worked hard, we managed to tweak a couple of things, and all of a sudden we started winning games. They went from strength to strength.
"It shows that sometimes even if you start a bit slow you can get back into the season and make something happen and that's what this group of players did."
Ashland started on the front foot with a goal by junior
Kieran Paterson in the sixth minute. He won the ball from two defenders near the corner then played the ball to senior
Fred Francis in support.
Francis squared the ball to junior
Haruki Kimura, who slotted a ball into the middle for Paterson. The Auckland, New Zealand native pounced on the bouncing ball and hit it into the back of the net.
The Panthers (4-5-1) equalized in the 15
th minute on a penalty kick and the game remained tied at 1 going into halftime.
"When I looked at the team sheet at the beginning of the day, I immediately thought we had a strong team going out there," Roberts said. "We got off to a very good early start and then they got a penalty to get back in it. Then the rest of the first half was really a little bit of cat and mouse."
The Eagles looked the brighter team in the second half and were finally rewarded in the 76
th minute after winning a corner kick.
Freshman
Rafael Pereira played in the cross, which sophomore
Hunter Johnson flicked on for Paterson, whose own flick fell for senior
Jacob Koehler, who finished in front of the net for his first goal of the season.
Ashland removed doubt just a minute later in nearly identical fashion. Pereira's corner kick was headed by Johnson back across the goal to Paterson, who headed home at the near post. It was Paterson's seventh goal of the season and fifth in the GLIAC Tournament.
The Eagles saw the game out from there en route to the third tournament title in program history. The other championships came in 2010 and 2018.
"The second half I thought we came out and played the best half of soccer I've seen all season," said Roberts. "We them closed down, created chances and obviously that showed in the score line at the end."
Each of Ashland's last two GLIAC Tournament championships came on the campus of Saginaw Valley, also winning there in 2018 as the tournament's No. 6 seed.
It was the Eagles' fourth appearance in the GLIAC Tournament championship game. It is AU's final season in the GLIAC before moving to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in 2021-22.
AU
MSOC/BB
