Flood of First Half Goals Sinks Eagles ACCA Championship Hopes

The Emmaus men's soccer team traveled to Joplin, MO on Thursday to play a doubleheader as part of the ACCA Championship Tournament. Their first match-up was against the Saints of Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College (Moore, OK) who had beaten the host, Ozark Christian Ambassadors, 3-1 in a storm-shortened game the day before.

Things looked promising from the opening kickoff as the Eagles managed to string together a few short passes and push to get deep. Joe Olson nearly gave the Eagles the lead in the 6th minute when he won a ball in the Saints' box, cut to his left, and shot just wide of the post.

After the initial Emmaus push, the Saints started to settle in and knock the ball around with crisp one touch passes. In the 13th minute they got on the board when forward Ruiz (#13) received a pass in the Emmaus box and managed to cut a shot through two Emmaus defenders and past keeper Rasmussen. Five minutes later they added to their lead when outstanding midfielder Spelman (#10) received a drop pass from a teammate and fired in a rocket from 20 yards out.

Hillsdale continued to press and nearly took advantage of some Emmaus mistakes in the back before finally capitalizing on three more goals in the final 5 minutes of the half, including an Emmaus own goal.

With a 5-0 lead at the break, the Saints took advantage of the opportunity to rest some of their starters while Emmaus looked to put together a more solid half of soccer. The two teams battled back and forth as Emmaus also took advantage of the opportunity to rest a few players for their match the following day. Neither team was able to create many strong opportunities until the 84th minute when Hillsdale knocked in their 6th and final goal of the match on a ball that somehow trickled through a mass of players from both teams to the feet of Dickey (#13) who walked the ball into the net.

The final score of 6-0 sealed the ACCA tournament championship for the Hillsdale Saints who held a shot advantage over the Eagles 31-7, forcing Eagle keeper Rasmussen to make 13 saves on the day. The Eagles are not done, however, as they will take on the Ozark Ambassadors in a battle for second place on Saturday (Nov. 7th) at noon. The Ambassadors managed to defeat the Eagles 3-0 earlier in the season.

"Obviously this wasn't the score we hoped for, but I have to hand it to Coach Beau Richmond's team as they played a fantastic game today. This is the most skilled Hillsdale squad I have seen in recent years, and more encouragingly, one of the more friendly teams as well. They are definitely going to be a team to watch in the NCCAA Division II tournament next weekend. I wish them all the best. As for my guys, win or lose, it is a privilege to coach them and I am thankful that we get another opportunity to give a better showing tomorrow. Go Eagles!" (Coach Brown)