Emmaus Leaves All On The Field, Comes Up One Goal Short

The Emmaus Eagles soccer team travelled to Moberly, Missouri this weekend to
compete in their 3 rd MCCC Conference tournament. Seeded 4 th , the Eagles opened play on
Thursday afternoon at 4:00 against the 5 th seeded Eagles of Faith Baptist Bible College. This
was the 3 rd meeting of the year for these two teams with Emmaus having come out on top
in the 2 previous tight battles. "I knew going in to this one that it was going to be tough.
Faith is a quality team and it is always very difficult to beat a team three times in a season,"
said Coach Brown.
The game kicked off with both teams establishing their determination to play with
great intensity. Players slid, tackled hard, and bodied up all over the field with neither team
seeming to gain an advantage over the other. At half time the score was knotted at goose
eggs with Faith holding slight shot advantage while Emmaus held the advantage in corner
kicks 4-1.
The second half saw much of the same as both teams continued to press the attack,
only to see determined defenses constantly parrying their efforts. Emmaus made a strong
surge in the 74 th minute which saw three shots in a row blocked by flying Eagle defenders.
In the 76 th minute Emmaus won a corner which led to Brandon Young barely missing the
post on a header.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 82 nd minute when Josh Bray sent a long
throw to the center of the box. The ball bounced around off of several players, looked like it
hit a player's hand, before finally being knocked into the net from close range by Faith's
Stuckey (#17).
Emmaus pushed to respond and made several dangerous attacks in the closing
minutes, including 2 corners and 2 deep throws in the final minutes, but this time it was
Faith's turn to close out the Eagles to advance to the winner's bracket.
"No joke, I couldn't be more proud of the way the guys fought today! There are times
you lose and you can point to mistakes and say that is where we went wrong. Today was
just a straight up battle in which both teams deserves credit for their efforts and I don't
think either can begrudge the other how it turned out. Faith plays hard, physical soccer, yet
my boys love to match up with them as the fellowship is sweet. As for my guys, today was a
good day. The result is disappointing for sure, but there are such bigger things out there.
Our hope was that if these were our last 90 minutes on this earth, that Christ would have
received the most glory possible. I believe that was accomplished." (Coach Brown)
The Eagles will have a day off on Friday before taking on the winner of
Calvary/Central Christian on Saturday at 10am in the consolation bracket.